Persona 3: The Journey of Two
by Changling96
Summary: One, with dark blue hair and silver eyes. The other, with brown hair and red eyes. One, the bearer of Death. The other, the Wild Card. Persona 3 w/ twin's journey, gender-bent SEES, and more dangerous moon cycles. Warning, contains violence, foul language, and gore.
1. Chapter 1: April 6 to April 7

4/6 _Outskirts of Iwatodi_

* * *

The near-empty train car constant rattling was only a small annoyance to the sole-conscious rider. Music blasting through her pair of headphones helped, but it was more of the nervousness upon noting the time that did it for the gray eyed, blue haired teenage girl. The other rider had no such qualms about sleeping on mass transit; his head of dirty-brown hair and sleep-hidden red eyes resting peacefully on the girl's lap.

"_We apologize for anyone inconvenienced by the delay. The next and final stop is Iwatodi. Iwatodi"_

The girl watched in silent amusement as her twin brother groaned and barely muttered, "No, Mina… 5 more minutes…" before attempting to go back to sleep. Grabbing her duffel bag from under her feet, she suddenly stood up, causing him to fall off the seats he was laying on and fall flat on his face.

"Hmm…. I wonder how your fangirls back in Kyoto would think about this, _Hamono-sama~_?"

"Ughh… Please don't remind me of them, Mina, I had a hard enough time making sure they didn't know where we were moving to"

Minako couldn't help the amusement that she knew was now evident in her eyes. It was always fun to see her normally picture-perfect, lady-killer brother out of character. The fangirls, though, were the not so fun side of being twins; requests for the delivery of love letters and the such was only made tolerable with her trusted headphones and a swift cold shoulder.

Feeling merciful, Minako aided her only mostly disheveled twin off the ground. Blood-red met silver before Hamono pouted and grabbed his own luggage off one of the dozens of empty seats.

"_Now arriving at Iwatodi station. This is the last stop in Tatsumi Port Island. Please be careful while exiting the train"_

The twins exited the train and left the platform; walking through the turnstiles before stopping in the open lobby leading to the streets of Iwatodi.

**Mistress… It's almost time…**

The all-too familiar voice with its small amount of static flowed from the back of Minako's mind, re-grounding her spirits from their amused high earlier. A quick check of the station's clock only made her earlier nervousness return. There were only 30 or so seconds until midnight and that number was dropping fast.

"Well, let's head to the dorm. It's way too late for us to be exploring anyways"

Minako couldn't agree with her brother fast enough and as he turned around and began to walk out of the station, midnight struck.

Minako couldn't help but let out a sigh. Not one of relief, but of exhaustion. There was a part of her that wished she could have left this back in Kyoto with the fangirls, but the rest of her knew that this… _issue_… of hers couldn't possibly be grounded by location. After all, having the world change in this twisted and sickly time period probably had no simple solution to end it.

"Waa… Uh, Mina? Are you seeing this?"

Minako's eyes sprung open, staring at her twin in disbelief.

**Hmm… It seems he is now "aware". Interesting…**

"Am I dreaming this?" Hamono was looking around the train station with a mix of careful curiosity and concern.

"It seems that this is real, Hamo. Let's just get to the dorm for now" Minako simply grabbed her twin's hand with her own and began to lead him down the street.

* * *

_Iwatodi Dorm_

* * *

"Hey look Mina, they've got power!" Hamono exclaimed as he ran up the steps and flung open the doors to the dorm. "See ya inside!"

Minako just shook her head before approaching the door at a much more moderate pace. She wasn't expecting her brother not only to remain completely calm on the way to the dorm, but _also _return to his normal, energetic self.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs, Minako stopped and looked back on the street they had just walked down, habitually scrutinizing the shadows for anything moving.

**It seems rather quiet here, at least at the moment.**

Minako silently nodded in agreement. Just because she didn't like this didn't mean she wasn't careful. _No one could survive for as long as I have without being careful,_ Minako thought grimly.

"WHO'S THERE!?"

Minako once again snapped out of her thoughts and threw open the doors to the dorm before rushing in. Hamono was standing just a few steps ahead with his back to her. The evident speaker from before was a another guy around their age with light brown hair and matching eyes. What really caught Minako's attention wasn't his appearance, but rather the gun strapped to his side.

"Don't tell me…"

One he was about draw.

_Thanatos!_

Minako dropped her left hand down to her back as she raced forward, reaching out to her frozen-in-place twin. The unknown resident drew the gun as Minako felt the cold touch of a scabbard form in her left hand; her right hand having every intention of shoving Hamono onto one of the nearby couches in the lounge.

"Takeba! Wait!"

'Takeba' spun around and looked farther up the stairs he was standing on after an older, and much more authoritative voice spoke up. With a twist of the wrist, Minako dispersed her weapon but kept her right hand on Hamono's shoulder.

And with that, the world returned to normal.

…

"We weren't expecting you two to arrive so late"

"Well you see the train got delayed and we got a bit lost on the way here. Isn't that right Mina?"

Hamono wasn't completely sure how to react to _whatever_ the hell happened to them on the way from the station, but he figured blabbing out some nonsense about the world turning a sickly green and blood-covered streets wasn't part of a "good" first impression. And speaking of good first impressions, Hamono noted, with more than a small amount of annoyance, that his counterpart seemed to be doing her damnest to not make one; if her simply humming in agreement before turning back to her now functioning mp3 player was any sign.

"I see… Oh, where are my manners? My name is Mitsuo Kirijo. I'm a resident of this dorm, as well as a kind of student-adviser" The rather mature-looking, well-dressed redhead introduced himself. Hamono also noted that his eyes were a few shades darker red than his own.

"So… Who are these two?" Now that the guy in front of him _wasn't_ in the middle of pulling a gun on him, Hamono had a better view of the brunette. They were about the same height, though Hamono quickly noticed that he was actually a bit thinner than Minako. Though, with how much of a fitness nut she could be at times that wouldn't be too hard, despite her being… well a _her._

"They're transfer students. They'll be here for now, but considering they're twins and of the opposite sex, I'm not sure what dorm they'll fill into"

"… Are they going to be alright here?" Hamono couldn't help but be slightly confused by that question. Considering both of the guys in front of him were openly carrying firearms, what in the world went on in this dorm?

"There shouldn't be any problems, but we'll see what happens" Mitsuo turned back to Hamono "This here is Yutono Takeba, he'll be in the same grade as the two of you for school: juniors"

"Hello you two" It was evident that Yutono was more than a bit uncomfortable with talking to them.

"It's nice to meet you, Yutono-kun and Mitsuo-kun!" Hamono had no such problems with talking to his dorm-mates. "I'm Hamono Aristato, and my mp3-obsessed mute of a sister's name is Minako Aristato"

Hamono smiled as he noticed that Yutono visibly relaxed and Mitsuo seemed to be holding in a chuckle. Turning to his twin, Minako scowled back at him but only succeeding in drawing out a grin from him.

She schooled her features and gave the other residents of the dorm a polite bow. Hamono rolled his eyes before smacking Minako upside the back of her head, knocking her headphones off in the process. "Use your words, _Mina_"

"It's nice to meet you as well"

A sentence and a glare was all he managed to get of his stubbornly stoic sister. Hamono considered it a victory.

If the laughter coming from in front of them was any measure, Hamono assumed that Yutono and Mitsuo had given up trying to hold in their amusement. Mitsuo got himself back under control first.

"We're glad to have you two while you're staying here. For the record, though, I'd appreciate it you'd refer to me properly; I am your sempai after all. Speaking of which, you two should be getting to bed, we all have school starting tomorrow"

Both Hamono and Yutono let out an audible groan at that bit of news.

* * *

"**Use your words, _Mina"_**

_Shut your theoretical mouth, Thanatos._

Minako wasn't exactly in the best of moods. She knew she was terrible at first-impressions. She didn't her twin constantly reminding her of that fact. And she _really_ didn't need to hear the god of death, and her mentor, cackling in the back of her mind at said fact.

The prospect of finally getting some sleep was clashing with the idea of school in the morning in terms of brightening or dampening said mood. She and Yutono, after dropping off Hamono on the 2nd floor, were walking down the hallway on the 3rd floor to her own room.

"Well, this is it. You're right at the end of the hall so you shouldn't have to worry about walking into someone else's room. Although, there's only one other girl living here so that's not likely anyways" Yutono spoke as a pseudo tour guide. He held out his hand with a key loosely held in it, "This here is your key. Make sure you don't lose it, Kirijo-sempai doesn't take that too well" He shudders with what Minako can only assume is first-hand experience to that.

"Anyways, do you have any questions?"

Minako thought briefly before just shaking her head and turning to open her door. Seeing Yutono with his face plastered in indecision made her pause.

"If you don't mind me asking, was everything alright? On the way here from the train station that is"

Minako almost indulged herself in asking if pulling a gun on her brother counted as 'not alright'.

**Only if you add, "Almost killing you for" before that.**

With Thanatos' seal of approval on that line of thought, Minako swiftly dismissed it. Thinking briefly, she settled on the truth.

"Tonight was no different from any other night. Aside from moving here of course" Minako noted that Yutono's expression twisted into something unrecognizable. He obviously was not expecting that answer. "Goodnight, Yutono-kun"

With that, Minako entered her room and closed the door.

4/7 _Port Island_ (Morning)

* * *

**Mistress… That wasn't very nice**

Minako promptly ignored the small annoyance buzzing in the back of her head.

**That wasn't the first time you've willed me into a dream with you but…**

She looked out the side of the monorail herself, Hamono, and Yutono were taking to school. The buildings that composed Port Island's business center sparkled so nicely in the morning.

**Was it really necessary for you do all that?**

Needless to say, Minako was in a _very_ good mood this morning. She'd might even consider smiling and talking to people!

**Some of the stuff you used I understand.**

She also managed to stop herself from falling to the floor in a fit of laughter. Having to explain to her twin why she found being social so hysterical would be a very annoying conversation; one involving _talking_.

**The knife made sense but tongs? Really tongs?**

_It's what you get for laughing at my expense. You share my consciousness; you knew what was coming._

**Right… I just forget how much of a sadist you can be at times**

"Hey you two, look over of the left. You'll be able to see Gekkoukan High School"

Minako snapped out of her inter-conscious conversation at Yutono's words. Apparently, he'd been assigned to show the newcomers the ropes on getting to school. She had to admit he did a good job showing them the way to the station and was amicably chatting with Hamono the majority of the way there. Evidentially, Hamono was already getting close to one of the more popular guys in the school if the amount of "hello's" and glances their way were anything to go by.

"Wow… Check it out Mina! This place is huge!" Hamono pressed his face against the glass with child-like glee. Minako did the responsible thing and forcibly moved her twin away from the glass.

"Before you break your nose" Was the only explanation she gave.

It only took a few more minutes (and a few more locational adjustments on Minako's part of Hamono's face) for the three to arrive at Port Island Station. Going along with the massive wave of students for another short minute before the path widened enough for her personal space to not be continuously assaulted, Minako, Hamono, and Yutono walked a rather relaxed pace to school. Minako's assumptions of Yutono's popularity were only confirmed with all the more greetings being thrown at him(She also didn't miss the small groups of girls that were taking photos of the three).

**Is it starting already?**

Hamono clearly had no issue with the spotlight, responding to questions and even agreeing to a few photo shoots.

_Day 1 hasn't even started yet and I'm already seeing the beginnings of a Hamono fan girl club._

**Well that's annoying**

Minako chuckled under her breath.

**What?**

_The idea that the Greek god of death has a dislike of fan girls never fails to make me laugh._

**I've explained this to you in the past, Mistress. We share a consciousness and thus your thoughts can affect mine and vice-versa. Sharing your general dislike of fan girls isn't that complicated of an idea with that.**

_But wait… If you've been around since before Hamono's had fan girls, would it be my dislike of them affecting you or your dislike of them affecting me?_

**That… Is a very good question.**

"Well, this is it. Welcome to Gekkoukan High School" Yutono turned around to face the twins and waved his arm around in the general direction of the school behind him.

"Yutono-kun, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I really don't think that I'm going to like it here"

Yutono looked over at the blue-haired twin; more surprised that she talked without being really prompted to. "And why is that?" was his natural question.

Hamono took one look at his siblings face before laughing. A lot. "Oh man, Mina, is it really starting already?"

The scowl on her face was all the confirmation he ever needed. Yutono just looked at them with a questioning expression on his face.

"You really haven't noticed? Two words Yutono: fan girls"


	2. Chapter 2: April 7 continued

4/7 _Gekkoukan High School_

* * *

"That's about it. Any questions?"

"No I think we'll be alright from here on out. Thanks for the help, Yutono" Hamono couldn't help but widely grin at Yutono while shaking his hand. He had a pretty good feeling they'd be getting along well this year. He figured Minako thought the same considering she actually talked to the sandy-haired teen without Hamono's form of "encouragement".

"Alright, well just head over to the Faculty Office to talk to your homeroom teacher. It's down the hallway on the left. You might want to hurry though; we've got a morning assembly if I'm remembering right"

"Well then we'll just be running along now. Later, Yutono!"

* * *

"Why are you looking at me like that, Mina?"

Hamono was lucky his twin was too busy making sure her arm was still properly attached to make a proper rebuttal to that. After leaving Yutono, he had decided the best way to get them to the Faculty Office was by pulling Minako along by the arm. Making sure said arm was still in her shoulder was a necessity before meeting their homeroom teacher.

"Pardon my intrusion!"

Minako couldn't help the collective sigh that escaped her. Hamono was just too energetic. Though – as much as Minako wanted to deny it – it did seem to have its uses. How else could you explain Hamono and Yutono going from talking at gunpoint to talking like they'd known each other for years in the span of seven hours? She just collected herself and followed in her twin's trail of carnage.

"Oh, you two must be the Aristato twins" A professional looking woman approached the two.

"That's us!" Minako just let Hamono speak for her.

"Now let's see… In 1999… Hmm? Ten years ago? Your parents…" The woman's voice fell off as she looked up from her file. Hamono could only smile sheepishly at her while Minako simply messed with her mp3 player, still hanging around her neck. "Ah, I'm sorry… I'd forgot until today so I hadn't read these beforehand"

"It's been ten years, Miss. You get used to it after a while"

Minako looked up at her twin, searching his eyes for any cause of concern. Finding none, she returned her gaze to the teacher.

"Anyways… I'm Ms. Toriumi. I teach Composition here at Gekkoukan. The two of you have been assigned to 2-F, my homeroom"

"It's nice to meet you!" Minako only mimic'd Hamono's bow.

"My, my. You two are polite. I wish more of my students were like you" Ms. Toriumi couldn't help the small laugh that escaped as well.

"Well I don't. What do you think you're doing with dyed hair and a mp3 player on campus?" A rather rough voice caught Hamono off guard. Turning around to take a look, Hamono only saw a rather plain looking man reaching out and grabbing Minako by the hair; pulling her off balance.

Minako's hair, while a bit messy, was mostly straight with a few bangs and ended just below her shoulders. It was also an interesting shade of dark blue which got her varying degrees of attention over the years. And while she didn't mind her twin messing with it from time to time, grabbing it like that was a definite issue with the teenage girl.

Hamono debated whether to attempt to stop what was inevitably about to happen or just watch the show.

When Minako caught the man's wrist and spun, throwing him off his feet and almost into a desk, Hamono just snickered.

"As fun as watching you almost murder a teacher would be, you should control yourself Mina"

Hamono figured his twin wasn't going to get in trouble for this, considering just how many of the teachers simply turned around and attempted to get back to work without laughing too loudly.

"Mr. Ekoda, just because you got tenure last year doesn't mean you can do what you want to the students" Ms. Toriumi looked to be the most amused with Minako's actions. Hamono took back everything he ever said about his sister's ability to make first impressions; it looked like Minako just got massive brownie points with every teacher on campus (and students as there was NO way this incident was going to be kept under wraps).

"Anyways, we've got an opening ceremony to attend. Let's go"

Hamono had to drag Minako away to get her to stop glaring at the teacher. Poor guy just got thrown off his feet by a girl probably less than a third of his age. Dealing with the girl's piercing glare was terrifying under normal circumstances.

* * *

Hamono had to hold in the laughter that was bubbling up within him. Apparently Minako's fury burned out quick as the second their new principle started talking, she went out like a light. He also found the principle's words to be near coma inducing, but he wanted to stay awake to overhear a bit of the school's gossip-mongers he knew would be talking instead of paying attention. Two girls nearby speaking rather loudly drew his attention first.

"We got two new transfer students?"

"Yeah I saw them this morning. I got a photo of them if you want to see"

"Whoa, why does the guy have blood-red eyes; that's really freaky"

"They definitely are scary; but he's so hot~"

Hamono snickered. Looks like Mina was right after all. A few guys started talking behind him.

"When I heard we were getting a chick transferring in I got so excited this morning I woke up an hour earlier than usual"

"So what?"

"You didn't hear? She was walking to school with Yutono-kun. She's already way out of our league"

Hamono had to bite his hand to stop himself from laughing at the groans that came from a few seats behind him.

The assembly ended shortly after that and, after a quick jab to the ribs, the twins headed over to their homeroom

* * *

**Do you think we could record the next speech your principle gives? I think we could weaponize it.**

_I'll genuinely consider it_

After being lulled to sleep by a speech so devoid of life it practically knocked Minako out, she was faced with the task of _talking_. _In front_ of _people_. _Multiple_ people.

_Dammit_

"I'm Minako Aristato. It's nice to meet you all"

And those were what Minako hoped were the last few words she had to say in front of so many people (at least in polite speech).

"And I'm Hamono Aristato! We're twins for reference and we hope you all take care of us while we're new!"

And there was Hamono, somehow completely unaffected by the morning's assembly. Minako was beginning to question why she was surprised by this anymore.

* * *

"Whoa, so the rumors really were true!"

Class had just finished and Hamono was about ready to wake Minako from another nap, when a female student who managed to get away with wearing both a baseball cap and an informally wrapped collared shirt interrupted him.

"Which one?"

"Heh, true 'nuff. I'm talking about those blood-red eyes you've got. I didn't get a good look at them when you were introducing yourself this morning, but now I can confirm. Heh heh"

Hamono was slowly beginning to realize that this was probably what Minako felt when dealing with him when he got a little overexcited.

"Well, since you're already in my face, and you already know mine, can you tell me your name?"

The student backed up a bit, "Sorry 'bout that. Name's Jackie Iori. Nice to meet ya"

"Really, Jackie?"

"As in the baseball player"

"Who?"

"You know, Robinson"

"Err… suurreee"

"Man I walk out of the classroom for five minutes and you're already at it. I'm not sure why I'm surprised anymore" Yutono walked back into the classroom then.

Jackie just gave Yutono a sheepish smile, "Come one, Yuticchi. I thought you knew me already?"

Yutono just made a slightly disgusted face, "Unfortunately, I do know you. Which is why I'm going to ask why you're attempting to hit on a dorm mate of mine"

Hamono looked back at Jackie, who looked back at him with an embarrassed expression on her face; "Uhh… Whoops?"

"Sorry Jackie-kun, you're nice and all but I'm going to have to decline"

"Aww… Well that's one chance gone. Heh, good thing I still got another attempt!"

"...Uh, Yutono mind translating what she just said?"

"Well you see Jackie's actually bi. Don't worry about your sister though, Jackie's attempts at hitting on people mirrors her batting style: She swings both ways, but strikes out every time regardless"

This time, Hamono couldn't help it. He fell on the ground laughing. Hard. Hard enough to wake Minako from her nap. He was still laughing when Minako pulled him up by the collar and got him back on his feet.

Off to the side, Jackie just looked at Yutono with a pout and a look of mock hurt; "That was worse than usual, Yuticchi. Wait, how long have you been waiting to throw that insult?"

Yutono just looked at her with a smile, "Far too long"

* * *

Minako managed to finish dusting off her brother while he attempted to get air back into his lungs. He then walked over to some girl she'd never seen before and started to apologize. It seemed that the girl was in the middle of extorting a meal out of Hamono when Yutono walked up to her.

"Err… I probably don't to need to ask this but, you haven't told anyone about… well…"

Minako just shook her head.

He let go of a breath she wasn't aware he was holding, "In all seriousness, don't tell anyone about last night"

Minako, and Yutono, realized that that particular sentence sounded rather _risqué_ out of context.

The girl rushing up to them and getting into their faces only served to spread the icing on the cake, "Ohhh, what's this I hear about last night? Is that why you insulted me like that when I brought up maybe asking her out? Heheh, got her all reserved for yourself, eh, Yuto-icchi~?"

Yutono could only sputter after that. Minako felt slightly merciful. Taking two naps in one day tended to help.

"We arrived at the dorm last night though it was pretty late because our train got delayed. So we showed up after midnight and Yutono-kun here thought we were breaking in or something. Simple misunderstand, that's all"

Of course, it seemed this girl wasn't going to listen to her, "Ohh… 'Yutono-kun'. When did you two get so close?"

Minako did the most logical action next. Smashing her palm into her face and walking out of the class. From the all-too-familiar laughter coming the classroom, Minako couldn't help but feel dread from the idea that Hamono found someone that was just as mischievous as he could be.

Finding out later that day that Hamono already rejected this "Jackie" was a very, very small comfort.

* * *

**A/N: Mr. Ekoda having tenure is about the only explanation I can give for him getting away with covering up a missing person for 10 days. That, or he only kept his job because Mitsuru did something to make his life hell at school *shudders*.**

**And yes, Fem!Junpei is bi. Half the reason is because I wanted to make that specific joke. The other half is because I'm lazy and that makes some parts later on a lot easier to write.**


	3. Chapter 3: April 8 to April 9

4/8 _Iwatodai Dorm_

* * *

**I don't like that man, Mistress**

_I don't think ANYONE likes puns that bad._

Minako had to suppress a shudder on that one. The "Chairman" the twins had been introduced to earlier that evening had seemed alright at first. Then he decided to start making puns after Hamono had accidentally made one.

**I can't exactly explain it, but I think my dislike of this 'Ikutsuki' is a bit deeper than his terrible word-play.**

_He's in charge of this dorm. So he probably knows what's going on. Though, I'd never thought I'd see the day when we weren't alone during that time._

Looking over at her alarm clock told her that she didn't have to wait too much longer until midnight. Minako wasn't stupid. She knew that she and her brother were under surveillance. It was only a matter of figuring out where the camera was.

Minako decided to sag into her desk chair and spin around idly.

**Found it. Up in the corner to the right of the foot of your bed.**

She made sure stop the chair facing away from the camera before the predatory smile ripped across her face. Looking across her desk, Minako's gaze fell on the dorm pamphlet that the twin's had received before moving. Minako's smile only got bigger.

Tonight, she had a message to send.

* * *

"I don't like this"

Yutono liked to make his displeasure of the fact that they had cameras installed into the rooms of his new friends known. It also didn't help that two teenage guys and one adult male "observing" one teenage girl was probably a crime.

"I understand your… misgivings… about the way that we confirm potential. But visual confirmation is really the only way to know for sure. And as invasive as having cameras installed in their rooms is, walking into their rooms while they sleep isn't any better"

While Mitsuo rarely saw eye to eye with his underclassman, he definitely shared his distaste of spying on others.

"Now, now you two. We're really short on numbers right now. Having two potential recruits join us is far too valuable of an opportunity to pass up. Besides, it's almost time"

At that point, midnight struck.

The warm, almost cozy 4th floor lounge was flooded by sickly green moonlight. The normal night time ambiance was replaced by a tense silence, broken only by the sound of a monitor being turned on.

"Well it looks like Aristato-kun is asleep. He isn't transmogrified and his vitals are unusually stable"

"He's probably got the potential then, right?"

"It's a bit early to be deciding that. Though, with how stable he is, I'd be surprised if he wasn't"

"Now, for Aristato-san"

Mitsuo flicked a switch and the monitor changed view to the female twin's room. The bed was vacant but the desk chair wasn't.

"She's still up?" Yutono didn't bother to hide his surprise. A look over at some of the screen overlays gave him another, "Hey, aren't her vitals abnormally low?"

Mitsuo, now intrigued, joined Yutono in looking at the overlays.

"Her file said that she was in rather athletic for not being a member of a sports team in their old school. Her pulse should be higher than usual as a natural response to the Dark Hour, but if this is right she seems even calmer than she normally is"

"Look, she's moving"

Ikutsuki drew their attention back to the camera view.

(Note: The italic text here is what is being displayed on the monitor)

_Minako reached over on her desk and picked up a pamphlet. She opened the paper and scanned the page._

"'_Tatsumi Port Island, an up-and-coming city on the water known for its safety. The perfect place to start anew'…. Tch, 'safety'? 'Start anew'? What a load of crap"_

_Minako crumpled the pamphlet into her palm before slamming it into the trash bin next to her desk._

_Rising from her desk, she walked over to the window before opening it and pushing half her body out it. She looked in one direction before turning the other way._

"_Nothing out here tonight either?"_

_Minako pulled herself back into her room before shutting the window._

"_It's been far too peaceful for this time"_

_She walked back over to her chair and sat down on it._

"_It's been a while since I last fought. And as quiet as it's been lately, there's no way its safe out there. I'll be fighting again soon enough, I can tell"_

_Minako pushed off her desk, chair rolling about halfway across the room before coming to a stop._

"_Isn't that right?"_

_Minako suddenly spun around and glared directly at the camera._

"_You three?"_

Yutono reflexively reached over and shut off the camera. Mitsuo couldn't help but grimace. Ikutsuki let out a very shallow chuckle. They'd been busted.

Yutono was the first to recover, "Uhh I'm going to go to bed now. Ugh, I told Hamono I'd walk with him to school tomorrow and I know he's going to drag Minako along with him. How am I supposed to face both of them now?" Yutono left the lounge, muttering to himself the entire way out.

Mitsuo couldn't help himself when he reached over and turned the camera back on. Minako was out cold, apparently having no issue sleeping in a room that she knew was under surveillance.

"Well she's rather observant, isn't she"

"Chairman, I think it's about time we had a serious talk about the cameras. I've been in the position that Takeba is going to be in. I'm just glad that Akiri was so forgiving at the time"

"I understand how you feel Mitsuo, but need to observe them for a bit longer"

Mitsuo held in the sigh he wanted to let out. It was going to be an interesting day tomorrow.

* * *

4/9 _Iwatodai Dorm (morning)_

* * *

Minako got up bright and early the next morning, catching a glimpse of who she assumed was the other female resident of the dorm as she walked over to the bath to get cleaned up.

**So, how hard are you going to cook Yutono-kun this morning?**

_Depends on how he reacts to seeing me. I'd rather not mess with him _too_ bad but I want to confirm that they were actually watching me._

After washing up, Minako got out her normal uniform. Upon seeing that the dress code wasn't nearly as strict as she first thought (There was no way Jackie would be able to go to class if it was), Minako decided to fix the major issue she had with the short skirt she'd been given.

_Ah, bike shorts, my old friend._

Minako began to reach over for her uniform when the dull ache in her left arm reminded her of the real reason she was up this early.

**I can feel it too. There's a good chance things will get messy tonight, Mistress**

Reaching over for the package of cloth bandages, Minako sat on her bed and began the process of binding her chest. While never an issue in the past, puberty had made her a bit more self-conscious since, while not particularly well endowed, Minako learned fast that binding her chest helped a lot while fighting.

Putting the uniform didn't take much time and Minako found herself with nothing else to do and about 30 minutes before she was going to leave. Grabbing the messenger bag that held her school materials, Minako left her room and started walking down the stairs to the lounge.

On the second floor, she saw Hamono entering his room on the far side of the hallway. As Minako was about to continue down to the lobby, Yutono exited his room.

"Yutono-kun"

Minako hid her amusement as Yutono appeared to jump out of his skin at the sound of her voice. _He_ evidently got the message.

"Ah, Minako-san… G-good morning…"

Yutono couldn't make eye contact with her. Minako, in the meantime, scowled slightly at what Yutono said.

"You forgot what I said yesterday? Drop the honorific; I really don't care for them"

"Good to see you two getting along"

Hamono joined the two, bag over his shoulder.

"Well, let's get going!"

* * *

_Iwatodai Dorm (evening)_

* * *

Yutono wasn't exactly sure what to make of the twins. On one hand there was Hamono; cheerful and friendly almost to fault. He either forgot or forgave him for how that first night at the dorm went and the two of them were on decent terms. And then on the other hand was Minako. Calm and collected; only really talking when she absolutely had to or when she told people to stop using an honorific on her name. She was the enigma of the two. Yutono was absolutely sure that she knew that she was under surveillance but she made no motion in reaction to it (other than what she did the previous night of course). He was more surprised that she didn't call the police (not that it would really accomplish much thanks to certain influences) never mind not calling him out on it.

So here he was, with Mitsuo and Ikutsuki again, waiting for the Dark Hour to hit. When it did, Mitsuo switched the monitor to Hamono's room.

"Exactly the same as yesterday"

Switching the view over to Minako's room resulted in a completely different image.

There was no image.

Static covered the screen and in one corner read: 'CAM 34: NOT CONNECTED'

"I'm not completely surprised. She knew where the camera was last night. I guess now we know why she went right to her room when she got back"

A sudden beeping filled the command room, which Mitsuo hit the transmit button in response to.

"Akiri? Is that you?"

* * *

**Mistress, get ready**

Minako sprung out of bed after being awoken by Thanatos. Readjusting the uniform she slept in, Minako grabbed a hair tie from her desk and began pulling her mess of hair into a pony tail.

_What are we looking at here?_

**I'm not completely sure. I can tell at least one thing is out there. But there's something else lurking in the shadows. Stay alert; I was right when I said things are going to get messy.**

_Right_

The dorm shook violently, effectively cutting off any more conversation. Minako threw open her door and rushed over to the stairs with every intent of getting to Hamono's room.

"Minako?"

Yutono seemed to have the same idea as he was running up the stairs to the second floor. Minako noticed that he had the same pistol from the first night strapped to his side.

"We're under attack, right? Let's go get Hamo"

Minako got to the second floor and ran down the hall, not bothering to wait on a response from Yutono. She could tell he was more than a little scared and so she didn't waste any time knocking on her brother's door before throwing it open.

"Mina? What's going on?"

Hamono was more than a little confused. For one the world was that weird and twisted version that he saw when they were walking to the dorm from the train station that first night.

"No time to explain but we need to get moving, now"

For two, Minako was talking without being really prompted to and where Yutono could probably be talking instead. This was serious.

"Right" Hamono finished throwing on his uniform that he had started to put on when he woke to the whole dorm shaking.

The trio ran back down the hall and down the stairs.

"Our Sempai are holding it off outside so we'll escape out the back" Yutono barely managed to finish his sentence before what appeared to be an earpiece started beeping. He pushed a button on it and Minako couldn't miss the color draining from his face as he listened.

The back door being slammed into and nearly breaking wasn't helping anyone's nerves.

"Upstairs! We can escape out the roof!"

Hamono's voice seemed to get through to Yutono as he shakily agreed.

After the first window on the ground floor exploded, Minako stood at the back of the three as they raced up the staircase.

Yutono flung open the door to the roof and the twins followed him in before he turned around and locked the door.

Yutono looked more mentally exhausted than physically while Hamono just looked confused.

**Something's coming**

Minako silently thanked Thanatos for the early warning as she grabbed Hamono and pushed him behind her.

Yutono tried to say something but was cut off.

A single, black hand reached up from over the side of the roof and grabbed onto the ledge. Another hand holding a blue mask with the Roman numeral "I" etched into it appeared. Six more empty hands joined the first in grabbing the ledge and the, _thing_, pulled itself up onto the roof top.

When it seemed to flick its many wrists and pulled daggers from seemingly nowhere, Minako knew they were in trouble.

**I'd advise against fighting that thing. Even with how skilled you are, you wouldn't be able to block that many blades.**

"I can do it"

Yutono's shaky voice snapped Minako to attention. He had stepped forward towards the monster and had pulled the pistol from its grip. He closed his eyes and put the gun to his temple.

Minako's instincts screamed and she tackled Yutono to the ground right before a thrown dagger flew overhead. In the moment, Yutono's pistol was knocked away and landed at Hamono's feet.

The world seemed to dull and narrow until it was just Hamono and the pistol.

He gingerly pulled it off the puddle of blood it was lying in.

He placed it against the side of his head and his finger shook against the trigger.

One word calmed his shaking nerves

"Per…"

"…so…"

"…na"

He pulled the trigger. The world exploded back into focus.

Minako just stared at her brother. Looking just at the massive smile on his face, she couldn't figure out how shooting himself in the head got him there.

"**I art Thou"**

A deep voice not too different from Thanatos' pulled her attention to over Hamono's head where a metallic giant was forming.

"**And Thou art I. From the sea of thy soul I cometh. I am Orpheus, master of strings"**

If it was possible, Hamono's smile got even larger. Orpheus began to glow and seemed to be consumed in a bright white light. While not too obvious, Minako noticed that the outline of Orpheus shifted slightly and whatever it was now made a sweeping motion with its left and before it ended above its head.

The clouds above the dorm parted as a small ball of white light fell from the sky before hitting the monster head on.

The resulting explosion and blinding burst of light made Minako and Yutono duck for cover.

The light eventually faded and the monster seemed to have been evaporated by it.

Minako looked over at her twin and noticed how exhausted he was. The smile was slowly slipping off his face and she rushed over to him when his legs began to give out.

She caught him as he fell, lowering him so that she could look him in the eye. Hamono tried to open his eyes but couldn't get them far open from exhaustion.

"Relax, Hamo. You can sleep; I'll take things from here"

His smile returned and fell asleep in Minako's arms.

"S-stay away from me!"

Yutono's voice reminded Minako that this night was only half over.

Five piles of sludge with a similar mask to the late monster pulled themselves over the edge of the roof and were now approaching Yutono.

Lying her brother against the wall, Minako ran over and dragged Yutono next to him. Placing the gun back into his hand, Minako turned around, "Take care of my brother for me"

_Our sword, if you would be so kind, Thanatos?_

**Right, Mistress**

Minako felt the familiar weight of her sword resting in its sheath against her left hand. The also familiar black aura began to slightly emanate from her body.

Approaching the piles of sludge, Minako drew two and a half feet of shining steel.

* * *

Yutono tried to calm himself down. He really did. But it was hard after what the twins had and currently were doing.

Hamono had destroyed the largest shadow SEES had encountered to date in one attack.

And now Minako had pulled a sword from thin air and was dispatching five Mayas with what could only be practiced ease.

A slight lean to the right and a slash was all it took to cut one in half. Now there were only two left. One tried to launch itself at Minako and only succeeded in getting launched off the roof with a swift kick. The other tried to run.

Yutono never thought he'd see the day when he'd pity a Shadow. But seeing the lone Shadow try to pull itself back over the ledge of the roof, only for the sword Minako had been using to be thrown and pierce straight through not only the Shadow but the concrete ledge, he could only wince.

* * *

Minako retrieved her sword from the ledge it had punched through and shook the black ichor from it. Walking back over to Yutono, she put her sword away and let it rest against her hip.

A night-shattering roar nearly made Minako fall over as she ran over to the two guys resting against the wall.

A quick check confirmed that Hamono was still breathing and that Yutono hadn't shit himself quite yet. Minako ran over and leaned over the ledge. A black shape was slowly approaching the dorm from several blocks away.

_Thanatos, focus on far-sighted vision. No need for color right now._

**Right, Mistress**

Minako's vision blurred slightly and the color drained from the world as she focused on the monster now approaching them.

Taking up the entire width of the (thankfully empty) street was a two-story, six-headed hydra. It was dragging itself down the street to the dorm. It was also blocking the fastest way to the hospital. Minako's vision returned to normal as she heard multiple people approaching.

The door to the rooftop flew open and Mitsuo, Ikutsuki, and the silver-haired dorm mate from that morning ran out.

The silver-haired female was clutching at the left side of her chest, clearly wounded. Mitsuo had a sword in one hand and another gun in the other, both which she sheathed upon seeing Yutono and Hamono. Minako finished her observations on Ikutsuki who didn't seem to have a scratch on him.

All in all, Minako was the only person they had left to take down the approaching hydra. Mitsuo was clearly exhausted by fighting whatever was out front earlier.

Looking for a few good ledges, Minako hoisted herself up onto the ledge of the roof.

"M-minako?"

Yutono's voice made her pause and as she turned around, all eyes were on her.

Another piercing roar made the problem very apparent.

"I'm trusting you all to take care of my brother. I'll clear the way to the hospital"

Not waiting for a reply, Minako stepped off the ledge and fell from the roof.

* * *

A few well-timed flips and grabs later, Minako landed on the street with a roll and ran straight at the hydra.

Two of the heads took immediate notice of her and opened their mouths, coving the blocks in front of them in a sea of fire.

Minako ran forward, completely unaffected by the blaze. Another head opened and unleashed a torrent of glowing-white spikes. She hissed as one of the barbs buried itself into her left shoulder, the rest either being deflected by her sword, missing entirely, or barely scratching her skin.

One head let out a roar before lunging at Minako, attempting to slam straight into her. With a scoff, she jumped and drew her sword, cutting the mask that covered the head's eyes straight in half. The head dissolved quickly and neck was slowly following. Running up the neck, Minako was again completely unfazed by another blast of fire directly hitting her. Jumping off the neck, she killed one of the fire-breathing heads with another slash to its mask.

One of the previously inactive heads knocked her back while mid-air and the spike-shooter let another torrent loose. This time, only one managed to score a hit against her side thought it was a rather deep cut.

**Those hits were only flesh wounds. You've still got full muscle control and I'm dulling the pain**

Minako silently thanked Thanatos for his work and returned her attention to the four remaining heads. There were one of the fire breathers, the spike-shooter, and the one that had hit her mid-air left. Interestingly enough, one of the heads seemed content to sit back and watch them fight it out.

Ignoring the idle one for now, Minako dodged to the side as the physical head tried to crush her. She noticed that the spike-shooter was in position to hit her if she tried to jump over for the kill. Minako simply slammed the end of her sword into the side of the head she'd just dodged, shattering the mask anyways.

Deciding the spike-shooter as the next target, Minako rushed to the side of the street, weaving in and out of spikes along the way. Reaching the side, Minako let the black aura flow into her legs as she jumped onto the side of the building next to her and proceeded to wall run up it.

The spike-shooter tried to re-position itself to avoid her but Minako simply grabbed onto the side of its head before running her sword through it. In its dying throws, the head launched her at the last fire-breathing head. It only accomplished getting said head cut in half.

Falling from the dying head, one last roar caught Minako's attention. The final head seemed to have enough and was now lunging at her, jaw agape. Caught in the air with no way to dodge, Minako steeled herself. As the mouth closed around her, she stabbed her sword straight into the roof of its mouth; right where the mask would be on the other side.

* * *

After Minako decided to jump off the dorm's roof, Mitsuo picked up the now unconscious Hamono and the entirety of SEES ran out of the dorm after her.

Following battle roars and other sounds of battle, SEES found Minako ripping herself out of a hydra's head from the inside; sweeping her sword out to clean it and then putting it away with a flourish.

The rest of the hydra's body began to dissolve and Mitsuo gave her an once-over. Aside from being covered in black ichor and some of her own blood, Minako seemed to only have a barb of sorts impaled in her left shoulder and a rather nasty gash along her side.

After Yutono reprimanded Minako for her rashness, the entirety of SEES ran for the hospital. The Dark Hour was only minutes from ending and Mitsuo wasn't about to try his luck. How they all managed to survive tonight was beyond him.

* * *

**A/N: Alright so really long chapter! This was about 3,800 or so words total.**

**The next chapter will probably be up around 1/4 or so since that's the next time I'll be able to upload.**

**Anyways, the hydra that Minako fought is the first of many non-canon monsters that will create the "more dangerous moon cycles" the story's description entailed.**

**Speaking of which, as you've all probably guessed Minako isn't the average Persona user (will be explained later). For now, here are Minako's resistances/weakness:**

**Slash, Strike, Pierce - Neutral**

**Fire - Null**

**Ice - Resist**

**Lightning - Resist**

**Wind - Neutral**

**Light - Weak**

**Dark - Null**

**LASTLY, I'd like to thank those who have been showing their support of this fic! Please give me feedback as it lets me know how you are liking/disliking it.**


	4. Chapter 4: April 9 to 10

**A/N: Surprise Update! Yeah, I wasn't expecting to be able to upload something today but here we are. Anyways, this is a short chapter and while this one lacks any real development, its more of a setup to the next chapter anyways so expect that one to be better. Again, expect that to be around 1/4 or so.**

* * *

4/9-10 _Port Island Medical Centre_

* * *

Sayoko Uehara had come to Tatsumi Port Island as a fresh college graduate looking for a steady job to help pay off her high-piled tuition expenses. Being a greenhorn, Sayoko wasn't too surprised when she got stuck with the graveyard shift. While it started off as a rather boring and tedious position, it only got interesting after the first few times three teenagers seemingly appeared from thin air, requesting medical treatment for injuries the red-head would always claim to be from a fight in the back alleys.

Of course, finding out the said red-head was the Kirijo Group's sole heir was constantly getting involved in these "fights" worried Sayoko. So, after the dozen'th or so time she patched up either him or one of the two gray-haired girls that could have passed as sisters, Sayoko Uehara confronted Mitsuo Kirijo on the situations he was getting into.

Finding _the_ Takeharu Kirijo, along with the three teens, outside her small apartment one afternoon was not what she was expecting. Sayoko was also not expecting to have her world thrown upside-down that afternoon as well.

The Dark Hour, Shadows, Personae: it all made sense in a rather sick and twisted way.

Accepting under-the-table "bonuses" in exchange for the assurance that the teens would receive immediate medical care as _humans_ and not as test subjects as Takeharu had admitted, with no small amount of disgust, had happened in the past wasn't necessary to convince Sayoko to enter under the Kirijo Group's umbrella of influence, but it certainly was nice.

Several years, and completely paid off tuitions, later, Sayoko found herself following her normal routine of walking over to a small waiting room and entering it right after midnight. Most nights the room would be empty and Sayoko would wait for half an hour over by the entrance to the ER in case any members of SEES would come running in. Tonight wasn't like most nights.

"Anyone in critical condition?" was her immediate question upon seeing the entirety of SEES, along with two new faces. She hit her pager to let the rest of the Kirijo-sponsored staff know that they'd be needed.

"Somehow, no. I'm not exactly sure how we managed to get through tonight without anyone being critically injured, but I'm not about to start question luck" Mitsuo was, as usual, the first to speak up.

"Well what are we looking at here?"

"Akiri's got a few broken ribs. Her left arm is a little worse for wear but nothing too serious. Aristato-kun is completely exhausted but stable; he passed out about half-way through the Dark Hour"

At that moment, the door to the waiting room opened and Sayoko led Akiri out to be treated. A male nurse entered shortly after to pick up Hamono from his seat on a chair he'd been left on.

Sayoko re-entered the room after the nurse left, "What else?"

"The only other one that got injured is Aristato-san here but…"

Mitsuo trailing off caused Sayoko to take a harder look at the blue-haired teenage girl walking forward after leaning against a wall.

Minako was partially covered in her own blood coming from numerous shallow cuts strewn around her entire body, one rather large cut that stretched from the middle of her stomach to the underside of her right ribs, and one left shoulder wound that looked like a spike was still impaled into it. Sayoko was about to run for a stretcher when she noticed that the teen was no longer bleeding. The wound on her stomach was already closed, if a bit raw from the recent injury. Even the wound on her shoulder, despite the spike, had stopped bleeding.

"What the-?" Sayoko couldn't contain her surprise. The wounds were obviously fresh but seeming healed at an alarming rate.

"I know what you mean. She also survived jumping from the roof of the dorm so I think she'll live. However, her shoulder is my largest concern at the moment"

"Hmm? Oh…" Minako realized that the spike in her shoulder was still there even after the Dark Hour ended. So she did the most logical thing that came to mind: removing it.

Sayoko, and the rest of SEES, notably paled when Minako ripped the spike out of her shoulder. However, instead of a surge of blood one would expect from removing an impalement, the wound didn't bleed at all.

"Alright, you need to come with me to an examination room" While it appeared that the girl wasn't going to bleed out anytime soon, Sayoko still needed to make sure there was no internal damage done. So she pulled her out of the waiting room and down to a room further down the hall


	5. Chapter 5: April 10 continued

**A/N: Here is that promised chapter. Anyways, I'm going to start responding to reviews before chapters start from here on in.**

**Review Responses:**

**Lady Glitchy**** \- Love Hotel? You're really looking far-forward. For the record, yes, the Love Hotel Full Moon will be happening and WILL be different from the cannon. But that's quite a ways off. After all, there's the Priestess Full Moon and the Emperor and Empress Full Moon before that. Those are going to be fun to write so be ready for what's to come. Also, Minako's nonchalant attitude towards being injured may or may not become a running joke for this story. I've already got one situation using that (funny enough it's during the Love Hotel Full Moon).**

**Nunas The No Name**** \- Yes Sayoto is a cameo from P4. I've seen one other fic use her and a few fics us OC's to fill in the 'hospital staff' role but since I didn't want to make up an OC that would basically just be a rename of another fic's, I just went with her. She'll be around every once and a while. Yes, Minako is experienced and yes, she does have a high pain tolerance but there's more to it then that. I hint at it in this chapter but I've blatantly said it during the hydra fight towards the end of chapter 5. If you're looking for it, just look for the one line Thanatos says during that fight.**

**And now, the chapter:**

* * *

4/10 _Tatsumi Port Island Medical Center_ (Extremely Early Morning)

* * *

**Perhaps, Mistress, ripping that barb out of your shoulder before explaining certain circumstances wasn't the best of ideas.**

_Well maybe they should have added "oversized mutant spiders" and "massive hydra" to the dorm pamphlet and I'd have added inhuman regeneration to my résumé._

The last time Minako had bothered to check the clock mounted on the wall behind her it had read 1:30AM. While no stranger to late nights, she'd prefer to get some sleep at this point to let Thanatos finish healing up her shoulder and side. So needless to say that Minako was _not_ very happy that the staff at the hospital had decided to keep her in a room, without a bed or chair, under observation while the test results on her insides were being finalized.

When the door finally opened and the nurse who introduced herself as Sayoto (who also shared her dislike of honorifics) walked in, the prospect of finally getting some rest was appetizing to Minako to say the least.

"Eventful evening?" Sayoto stated, with her seemingly trademark chuckle, "Now I'm sure you already know this, but the tests came out clean: no internal damage. Though, I must say, it looks like most of the damage to you was _external"_.

Minako just let out a sigh. She'd noticed it sometime after arriving at the hospital (the stares from some of the staff were a major tip-off) but the fight with the hydra had _destroyed_ her uniform. It was torn in so many places Minako didn't know where to begin; did she start at her shoulder or her side? And despite her-own invulnerability, the edges of her skirt were completely burnt off and the front of her jacket was completely blackened (where it wasn't shredded). Thankfully, her bike shorts and bandages had come through unscathed so Minako didn't have to worry _too_ much about indecency.

"You wouldn't happen to have a bed I could just pass out on?" Minako decided to voice her wishes for once.

It only got a smirk out of Sayoto, "Oh so you _can_ talk. I was under the impression you were some sort of mute"

Sayoto only laughed again when Minako scowled at her.

"I think I can arrange for a bed for the night. Though I'm sure you don't want to sleep in _those_ clothes so I'll just go get a garbage bag for them and we'll call it a night"

Minako managed to keep her stoic face up until Sayoto left the room; it twisted into a look of annoyance once the door shut.

_I knew I wouldn't be able to hide forever, but having a hospital nurse be the first to find out isn't going to get me to sleep any faster._

**At least this hospital seems to expect teenagers with unexplainable wounds to show up right after midnight.**

_It seems the Kirijo's are nothing if not thorough. Getting an entire hospital in on this can't be cheap._

Minako had been attempting to get her dress shirt off, and failing due to the a few of the buttons being somehow _melted_ to the fabric, before giving up and ripping the now rag-worthy material off her when Sayoto re-entered the room.

And as expected, Sayoto froze when she got a look at Minako's barely covered upper body. Aside from the other-wise impressive muscle mass Minako had built up from training herself to survive night-to-night, her body – mostly her stomach and upper arms – was marred with scars from said survival.

Minako averted her eyes while accepting the garbage bag Sayoto offered, placing her ruined shirt and jacket into it. Reaching down to remove her now ruined skirt, Minako revealed a few more scars on her thighs; and a few that barely poked out from under her bike shorts.

Sayoto couldn't help the grimace that covered her face as she looked over the scars, checking to make sure none of them had re-opened that night. Her hand reached out for one that rested just to the right of her naval: one that seemed far deeper than the rest.

"Run-through, completely. Happened maybe a year and a half to two years ago during the summer time. Some samurai-looking nasty got the drop on me"

Sayoto raised her eyebrow, silently asking the obvious question.

"It didn't last too much longer after I cut off its sword arm and bashed its face in. The pain from that was absolute hell though; it made that spike in my shoulder feel like a pin prick in comparison"

"How in world did you manage to survive that?"

"I managed to stop the bleeding before I made it back home. From there, it wasn't too hard to fake illness to get myself a couple days' worth of bed rest. By then, everything was back together internally"

Sayoto took a step back and held her face in one hand, "I know Personae have the ability to heal and _she_ healed at a pretty abnormal rate too, but…" Sayoto returned her gaze to Minako, "This rate of healing is unheard of, even considering the supernatural elements involved"

Minako couldn't help but raise her eyebrow at that, but shook her head dismissively when Sayoto appeared to get ready to explain herself.

"At this point, I just want to get some rest. I'm sure my new _friends_ will be giving me plenty of explanations soon. I figured you were involved as well; checking on a dark waiting room right after midnight is a bit too well planned out for you not to be"

Sayoto let out another chuckle, "Observant are we now? Well you do have a point. Just follow me we've got a free room for you"

Minako just nodded her head in understanding before following Sayoto out into the halls. Thankfully, it was late enough that no one was walking the halls and the room wasn't too far away to begin with.

Sayoto simply smiled at her before closing the door. Minako immediately realized that she wasn't in a single room and rushing over to the curtained off area revealed an unconscious, but alive, Hamono.

_I'd hoped that he'd never have to experience this hell._

**I share that sediment, Mistress. Though it seems that he's well equipped to live through this.**

_I know that, but still…_

**He's not alone. After all, it's not like you won't be around to help him through this. You've been there for him in the past; I don't see how this is different.**

Minako couldn't keep the smile off her face. Thanatos was right; she could be there for him again to help him adjust to this. This time, she actually knew what she was doing.

Minako walked over to the bed next to her twin's and lied down. Exhaustion set in immediately and she passed out shortly after.

* * *

_Meanwhile at Iwatodai Dorm_

* * *

The ringing of a cellphone was barely enough to break Mitsuo out of his concentration. He'd been working on a report detailing the events of the night for his father. SEES had fought against shadows in the past, but none prior could rival the one that had tossed Akiri around like a ragdoll before destroying part of the dorm. Aristato-kun had managed to kill it, but Mitsuo still had no idea what really happened on the rooftop; Takeba was still in shock and Aristato-san had _jumped off the roof_ after they arrived. Which brought Mitsuo over to the other fight he had no idea about; the fact that there was a hydra on the streets of Iwatodai and the other fact that Aristato-san had killed it before the rest of SEES could catch up to her.

"Mitsuo speaking" was his response upon opening his cell phone while reviewing what he had written already.

"It's Sayoto, no need to be so formal" Mitsuo couldn't prevent himself from sighing deeply. Sayoto was an excellent nurse who helped SEES constantly, but could be… _intrusive_… at times. "Don't sound so disappointed to hear from me"

"I'm not, it's just… _paperwork_" Sayoto laughed at this. Mitsuo could seem to be a perfectionist at times but no one like doing paperwork when they should have been sleeping.

"I understand. Anyways, I've got the test results on the Aristatos here"

Mitsuo stopped review his report at this, "Go on…"

"Hamono Aristato. Presence of a Persona: Confirmed. Vitals: Stable. Condition: Unconscious. Notes: Hamono shows signs of over-exertion and exhaustion but is otherwise unharmed. During scans for detecting a Persona, there were signs of another Persona in his sub-conscious but this was dismissed as a machine error as the signs faded almost immediately. Hamono also has an abnormally high sync rate, displaying an almost natural talent for Persona Summoning"

"Okay, so how about Aristato-san?"

"This is where things get _interesting_. Minako Aristato. Presence of a Persona: Unknown. Vitals: Stable. Condition: Conscious, but asleep. Notes: Minako is in incredible shape; rivaling that of current SEES member Akiri Sanada. She also seems to have an extreme pain tolerance and an inhuman level of tissue regeneration. During scans for detecting a Persona, _something_ was detected that was previously not thought of. While we did find signs of something within her subconscious, we cannot categorize it as a Persona; at least in traditional terms. Whatever it is, its presence was detected throughout her entire body. During tests for sync rate, Minako's results broke her brother's by a considerable margin. This, along with evidence collected from the previous tests, leads us to believe that Minako and her 'Persona' are integrated together. This is just a theory, but if correct it would explain her unnatural recovery time and blood clotting as observed."

Mitsuo sat back and messaged his temples, "This is a lot to wrap my head around"

"You're not the only one who's in the dark, Mitsuo"

"Alright, thanks for calling me. When can I expect a written copy of those evaluations?"

Sayoto laughed, "What? Not interested to hear how Akiri's doing? You're not being a very considerate _boyfri"_

Mitsuo cut Sayoto off by closing his phone. Her teasing was tolerable on a good day.

It had _not_ been a good night in the least.

* * *

4/10 _Tatsumi Port Island Medical Center_ (Late Afternoon)

* * *

For the sake of the entirety of SEES, Mitsuo had pulled some strings and gotten the entire team a day off of school. With, ironically enough, the Shadows' help, Mitsuo was able to fabricate a believable story that around midnight, a driver had crashed into the front of the Iwatodai Dorm and took off. According to the story, Minako, Hamono, and Akiri had all been in the lounge talking when it occurred and thus had been taking to the hospital to treat their injuries. Hamono's wounds getting "infected" and his need to stay at the hospital until they cleared was his cover for his inevitable extended stay. Mitsuo would be too busy informing his father about the abnormal shadows to go to school and Yutono was just flat out exhausted.

According to the extremely brief conversation he had with Mitsuo, Yutono found out that Minako would be released that afternoon as her injuries had healed at an alarming rate but the uniform she had been wearing during the attack was beyond repair. So Mitsuo had tasked Yutono with getting Minako a clean set of clothes from her room and picking her up from the hospital. Mitsuo had then run off, busy with getting into contact with the Kirijo network about the attack and describing the damage done to the dorm while workers arrived to get the front of the dorm back into shape.

So here was Yutono, entering the hospital with a bag of clean clothes in one hand and a room number in the other at about 4 PM. He was able to walk straight to the room in question; the hospital staff knew at least that certain teenagers needed reasonably unquestioned access to certain parts of the hospital.

Knocking on the door resulted in a slightly muffled "Come in" from the other side and thus Yutono walked in.

Seeing Minako walking around skin-tight bike shorts and nothing on her chest save for some bindings made him immediately look down.

"Yutono-kun, it's good to see you"

"Same to you; you look better when you're not covered in blood" Yutono almost smacked himself in the face for saying that. Minako just lightly chuckled at the comment.

"That bag wouldn't happen to have clothes in it, would it?"

This time, Yutono did smack himself in the face. How did he forget what he was here for?

"Uh yeah, it does. Here you go"

Minako silently accepted the bag from Yutono, amused as he was still staring at his feet. Walking back to the bed, Minako placed the bag on it and began to remove her clothes from it. Yutono chewed on his lip; it was now or never.

...

"I'm sorry!"

Minako almost jumped out of her skin at Yutono's sudden exclamation. Dropping her clothes, she turned back to her dorm-mate who was still looking at his feet but had a conflicted look on his face now.

"I was supposed to protect you two, but I messed up. Your brother's unconscious and you got injured" Yutono couldn't help but sigh, "I feel so useless"

"You are _not_ useless" was Minako's immediate and blunt response.

"But, I…" Yutono just looked dejected now, "It's been a few months now and I still can't do it. I know it doesn't hurt and I'm not actually shooting myself in the head but… I'm just so scared; and now my cowardice almost got you two killed"

Minako just shook her head and walked over to Yutono. Yutono couldn't help but be surprised when he was forced to look into the blunet's eyes. He couldn't hide his blush when she went further and made him look down at her body. His blush faded fast when he noticed the patchwork of scars that riddled her body.

"Being scared is completely normal, Yutono-kun. Anyone would be scared putting even a fake gun to their head. And anyone would be scared of a space-time anomaly which corrupted the world every night at midnight. Being brave and courageous isn't done in the absence of fear; it's done in spite of fear. So it's okay to be scared. And it's okay to make mistakes; just make sure to learn from them. After all, I don't have more than one scar in the same place"

Minako released her grip on Yutono before returning to putting on her clothes.

"Wow Minako, I think that's the most you've said since you got here" Yutono couldn't help but laugh at the dark look Minako shot him.

"Thanks a lot; for protecting me back on the roof, and for _that._ I needed it" Yutono bowed slightly when saying his thanks.

"You're welcome. But you should be really thanking Hamo here. If he hadn't evaporated that overgrown abomination of a spider none of us would have made it through last night" Minako finished buttoning up the navy dress shirt that Yutono had brought her; the mid-thigh length black skirt already on, "Speaking of which, any chance I'll be getting an explanation for why there was a camera in my room any time soon?"

Yutono noticeably paled at that, "We're really sorry about that. I've told the Chairman many times that those cameras were a bad idea but he wouldn't listen. For the record, Kirijo-sempai shares my distaste of them. If I'm remembering right, you already destroyed the camera in your room so I guess you don't have to worry about that anymore"

Yutono was startled when Minako broke out into a very shark-like grin, "Destroyed? Why would I do that?"

"Uhh, never mind"

After signing some release forms, Minako and Yutono made their way out of the hospital and onto the streets of Iwatodai.

"Alright so we can't go back to the dorm until later; they're still repairing the damage that was done to the front of the dorm and the rooftop. So, is there anywhere you want to go while we're burning time?"

"Hmm, let's go check out the mall"

* * *

_Iwatodai Dorm_ (Evening)

* * *

"Hey, welcome back Yuto- Whoa! What's with all the bags?"

The silver-haired senior couldn't help her surprise. Yutono and Minako had just arrived at the door, hands full of plastic bags.

"Hey Sempai; well after picking up Minako here from the hospital, we decided to take a walk around the mall. I was kind of expecting to get dragged around to some clothing stores but I wasn't expecting to get dragged to the supermarket. Oh, that's right. You two have never been properly introduced, have you?"

"You're right we haven't"

"The first time we 'met', you looked like hell; I also jumped off the roof to fight a hydra" Minako's voice was about as dry as she could get it, "So, no, we haven't been introduced"

"Ain't that the truth? Anyways, I'm Akiri Sanada" Akiri couldn't keep the amusement out of her voice.

"Minako Aristato, it's a pleasure"

The two tomboys shook hands while Yutono looked on with a small pout on his face.

"Hey, why weren't you this polite when we first met?"

"You were a second away from pulling a gun on Hamo" Yutono visibly paled

"Uh…"

"So to make up for it, you can help me out with cooking dinner"

Minako picked back up her two handfuls of plastic bags and carried them over to the kitchen. Yutono grabbed his share and followed her.

"Wait, you can cook?" Akiri couldn't help her curiosity.

Minako started to take out the items from the bags before responding, "Yeah, Hamo and I stayed in a foster home for three years back in Kyoto before coming here. Our foster mother decided to teach me how to cook; spouting some nonsense about me not being 'lady-like' or something"

Yutono felt the sweat drip down the back of his neck before he noticed that Minako seemed more genuinely amused than insulted by what her foster mother had apparently said.

"From what I remember you doing in the hospital, not being 'lady-like' is a pretty accurate description of you" Akiri smiled back at the small glare that Minako shot her way.

"I've got to agree with Akiri-sempai here; I don't really know any ladies that know how to fight with a sword like you can" Yutono stated with a small, but clearly amused smile on his face; even after Minako brought her glare over to him.

"Shut up you two; unless you don't feel like eating tonight"

Minako smiled to herself at how fast Akiri and Yutono quieted down.

* * *

A few hours later, three well-fed teenagers sat back down at the dorm's dining table.

"It's a shame that Mitsuo missed that"

"Yeah, that was really good! Thanks a lot Minako"

Minako just silently nodded her head at the praise. The two members of SEES quickly quieted down as a rather serious atmosphere seemed to set in.

"We owe you a bit of an explanation, don't we?" Akiri was the first to break the silence. Minako just nodded again.

"Well usually Kirijo-sempai and the Chairman handle this, but…"

"Let me take a guess first"

Yutono and Akiri both snapped their attention back to Minako, silently waiting for her to speak again.

"First; Yutono-kun, Akiri-sempai, Kirijo-sempai, and the Chairman are all a part of a group called SEES. Second; all members of SEES are able to experience the space-time anomaly that exists between midnight and the moment directly after it. Third; all member of SEES, except for the Chairman, are somehow able to fight the nasties that roam around during said time. Fourth; somehow, someway, SEES figured that Hamo and I were similar to you all and offered us scholarships and housing to come to Gekkoukan High in an attempt to recruit us"

Yutono and Akiri both took a moment to think over what Minako had just said.

"That's actually the majority of it" Yutono was the first one to break the silence this time.

"It's good to see that you're observant. Just for reference, we call the time right after midnight the 'Dark Hour' and those 'nasties' are known as 'Shadows'"

"Is that what you call them? Alright, I never really put a name to them; after all, you only really need a name for something if you're telling someone about it"

...

"Hey Minako; there's been something that's been bugging me ever since you arrived at the dorm a few nights ago. If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been experiencing the Dark Hour?"

Minako took on a thoughtful expression and was silent for a while before talking again, "The simple answer is about three years; that's when those 'Shadows' started showing up and I had to fight. The complicated answer is I don't know. I don't remember _not_ experiencing the 'Dark Hour'; at least when I didn't just sleep through it. I figured out pretty quickly that I was alone during that time, so I didn't talk to anyone about and I just kinda accepted it for how it was"

"Three years fighting? All those scars…" Yutono's voice trailed off upon realizing what the scars he saw at the hospital were caused by.

"Yeah, I got most of them during the first year. It was just survival during that time. I knew how to fight; just adjusting to fighting those 'Shadows' was hard enough"

...

Silence once again reigned over the table.

…

…

"I'd like to join"

…

"… What?"

"SEES; I'd like to join"


	6. Chapter 6: April 11

**Reviews:**

**Guest**** \- I'm glad to see that this story has exceeded your _expectations _for lack of a better term. For the record, this entire story is based on an idea that I got which was simply: 'What if Thanatos wasn't sealed in the Wild Card?'. The gender bending was something I decided on last minute to mix things up as there are almost no gender bender stories for P3 on this site. I love snarky Minako too, though I must admit that that characteristic of hers was not planned. It really started with her mocking Hamono on the train in Chapter 1 and just wrote itself into the story from there. Minako's snarky comments will be mostly between herself and Thanatos for now, thought they'll be leaking out into the real world from time to time. So look forward to that.**

**rebfan90 -**** Glad to hear that you're enjoying things thus far.**

* * *

4/11 _Iwatodai Dorm_

* * *

Minako woke up before her alarm clock; the amount of sleep she'd gotten back at the hospital had done her a lot of good and a quick look at her shoulder told her that she was full patched up. She'd also gone back to her room rather early as she had a packet of school work from the day off to do; a packet that she'd found alongside a replacement uniform that Mitsuo had apparently had express delivered while she was in the hospital.

Finishing her morning routines and putting on her new uniform left Minako with an hour before she needed to leave.

So when Yutono walked down the stairs, ready for school, he was slightly surprised to see Minako eating toast and reading one of the spare magazines in the lounge.

"Hey Minako; you're up early"

"Ah Yutono-kun" Minako got up from her spot on the couch and threw the magazine back onto the pile, "Let's get going"

* * *

_Gekkoukan High School _(Morning)

* * *

_I had a feeling this would happen_

**You are one of the two new transfers walking with one of the more popular guys in school. You both missed yesterday as well. I can hear the rumor mill churning right now.**

Stopping at the gates, Minako tried to ignore the blatantly obvious groups of girls talking with their hands covering their mouths but were staring straight at her while doing so. Every once and a while, one of the girls would yell out something incomprehensible before the other members of that particular circle would attempt to quiet her down. Minako just let out a deep sigh before continuing on her way. Yutono had ran into some fellow club members and needed to run off, leaving her to brave to the rumormongers on her own. Thankfully, this wasn't the first time that Minako was put into a situation like this.

So when the first group/mob of girls ran up to her, a jumble of "Is it true….", "I heard…", and one "HOW DARE YOU…", Minako leveled one of her coldest glares at them.

_Good to see I haven't lost my touch_, was Minako's only comment as the entire group froze in place as she walked around them.

Only to run into the small horde that didn't see her glare.

_Thanatos, our sword; if you would be so kind…_

**In the words of your brother, "As much fun as it would be to see you murder everyone you need to control yourself, Mina"**

Please_, just indulge me this_ once.

**No can do. I might be the God of Death, but I can't just let you slaughter a bunch of schoolgi- oh wait there are a few guys in there as well… Uh, there are cameras; that's why you can't slaughter everyone. Let's go with that.**

At this point, Minako was bodily moving people out of her way in her attempt to get to the front door. It was only through a combination of brute force, artic-level glares, and the noise-canceling in her headphones that she made it through the front doors and into the lobby with her eardrums and sanity intact. Reveling in the sanctuary of the school lobby, Minako made her way over to her locker and began to change her shoes.

_That was worse than the damn hydra. At least the heads had the decency to stay down after I'd destroy them; instead of getting back up and asking me how I survived after the dorm got bombed._

Putting on her pair of indoor shoes, Minako re-adjusted her messenger bag – how it miraculously wasn't torn from her was beyond her – and made her way up to the second-year hallway. Opening the door revealed only a few other students who evidently must have watched the fiasco outside.

Minako walked over to her desk, located just to the left of her twin's, and sat down in it; enjoying the last bits of peace she'd get before class started.

_Today, is going to be a _long_ day._

* * *

_Gekkoukan High School_ (Lunch Time)

* * *

"Sooo…. I heard _some _people had a rather, _interesting, _evening"

Minako didn't need to look over to know that Jackie was wiggling her eyebrows at Yutono with that stupidly suggestive tone of voice that she was using. From what she was seeing, Minako couldn't help but be impressed by Yutono's self-restraint; how he knew her for so long without smacking her was beyond Minako.

"Jackie… If you started rumors about us again…."

Of course, Yutono probably covered for a lack of physical abuse with that threatening look in his eyes.

"Heh hehe… Does that make them true, Yuticchi?"

"Not in the slightest"

"So, you wanna explain to me why you three were mysteriously absent yesterday?"

"Uh, well you see…"

"There was a car accident the night before last"

Minako figured she should probably clear things up at this point. _I really should start keeping a tally on how many times I've had to bail out Yutono-kun._ Seeing as she had both of their attentions, Minako continued.

"Some driver crashed into the front of our dorm around midnight on that night. Akiri-sempai got hit by a piece of debris and messed up a few of her ribs…

_She got thrown around by an over-grown mutated spider with hands and arms for legs like a toddler playing with a noise maker_

… Hamo got hit by some shrapnel and is still in the hospital because some of his wounds got infected…

_He passed out from exhaustion after shooting himself in the head with a pistol before summoning a Greek mythological figure that 'changed' and proceeded to wipe said spider off this plane of existence_

… I had to stay at the hospital to make sure that my wounds didn't get infected…

_I jumped off a four-story tall dorm rooftop to fight a six-headed, two-story tall hydra that happened to breathe fire and I got injured after a spike impaled itself into my shoulder alongside the dozen or so cuts I got from other spikes_

… and Yutono-kun here got stuck dealing with police reports and didn't get back until late. That should be about it"

**Let's just leave it at a car accident.**

"Is that what happened?" Jackie still looked completely lecherous.

Minako stood up, walked over to Jackie, and placed her hand on her shoulder.

"You wouldn't happen to be the one starting all those rumors, would you?"

Jackie flinched under Minako's glare.

"Ha hah… And, if I was?"

"You'd have no problems with spreading around the _truth_ for me, would you?"

Jackie withered further when Minako started smiling at her while tightening her grip on her shoulder.

"Uh… Sure? I'll make sure to do that…"

Jackie managed to pry off Minako's death grip before sprinting out of the classroom.

"I hope that's the last we need to deal with that. Though, I don't think I've ever seen Jackie _that_ scared before"

Minako silently nodded before returning to her desk, fishing through her messenger bag for her lunch. After grabbing her boxed lunch, she sat down in her brother's seat, facing Yutono.

Yutono looked to be going through his own belongings before sighing, "I forgot my lunch at the dorm; and my wallet"

When he turned back to her, Minako just gave him a questioning glance.

"Oh, that's alright. I'm not really that hungry today anyways. What do you have there?"

Minako took the top off her lunch and let the smell float into the air.

"Leftovers from last night"

Minako smirked when Yutono's stomach growled loudly.

When Yutono moved to further reject the offer, Minako threw her chopsticks at him; effectively shutting him up as he focused on catching them while she got her spare pair from her bag.

"Well… Thanks for the food!"

* * *

**A/N: Okay so another quick chapter for you all. Expect the next one to be finishing up Minako's time while Hamono is napping and the beginnings of the actual plot of the story! Expect the first Tartarus expedition to be Chapter 8 and maybe 1-2 chapters from there until the Priestess Full Moon.**


	7. Chapter 7: April 11 to April 19

**A/N: Alright so an explanation for what I just did. I combined Chapter 1, 2, 3 because of how short they originally were. I also am going to be writing down the dates that each chapter encompasses so that's why I took down all the chapters and re-uploaded them. I also did a good bit of cleaning up on the previous chapters including fixing naming inconsistency (oops).**

**Reviews:**

**Nunas The No Name: I'll dispel your nightmares now by saying that Minako does not have a Mitsuru-like 'execution' of any sorts. Though, (this won't be happening until the week before the Emperor/Empress Full Moon) she'll have an _interesting _take on 'walking'. Be ready for when that happens.**

**rebfan90: Hello again. Thanks for the support.**

**LadyGlitchy: Welcome back. Not entirely sure what you mean with that comment; do you like reading semi-filer chapters in fics in general or just this one? Thanks anyways :P.**

* * *

4/11 _Naganaki Shrine_ (Afternoon)

* * *

**Now _this_ looks promising.**

Minako simply hummed in agreement. After saying goodbye to Yutono after classes ended, she took off in a search of new training grounds. Under the idea that she wouldn't be fighting anymore, Minako had forgone any research into her new neighborhood and now had to put in legwork to find a new area to workout.

Stumbling across a small shrine with a playground on the grounds was looking to be a blessing in disguise.

_Open area, no people around; looks perfect._

Minako walked over to the playground and dumped her messenger bag on the bench next to it. She was in the middle of testing out the jungle gym to make sure the bars could hold her weight when a young voice interrupted her.

"Onee, are you playing?"

Minako turned around to face a short brown-haired girl with pig tails. She had a backpack on her – evidentially didn't go home first after school – and a genuine look of curiosity on her face.

"Uhh… Kind of? Why, you planning on playing?"

"Yeah! Did you want to play with me? Oh, wait. Mommy said to not talk to strangers…"

Minako felt a small smile slip onto her face, "Well how about this? My name's Minako Aristato; what's yours?"

"Maiko Oohashi! Why did you ask?"

Minako's smile widened, "Well now we're not strangers. So I can play with you now"

**Well aren't _you_ being expressive.**

Seeing Maiko's face brighten considerably was worth Thanatos' teasing in Minako's book.

"Sure, let's play! Can I call you Mina-nee?"

Minako would have normally been annoyed at any honorific added to her name; this wasn't one of those times, "Only if I can call you Maiko-chan"

"Alright, let me put my bag down and we'll start with tag! I hope you're ready Mina-nee; I'm the best in my class at tag!"

Minako felt her smile turn into a smirk, "Maiko-chan, how did you know my favorite game?"

* * *

"Mina-nee… *huff*… how are you… *huff*… not even… *huff*… tired? What kind… *huff*… of tag… *huff*… do you even play?"

Two hours of intense, back-and-forth tag later, Maiko was doing her best impression of a goldfish. Minako, by comparison, wasn't even winded. If possible, Minako grinned even wider than she was already.

_It's a good thing Hamo is already unconscious right now. If he saw me, I think he'd go into shock._

"Well, Maiko-chan, that's because I play…

_Pause for dramatic effect…_

… _Ultimate_ tag"

Maiko managed to pull enough air into her lungs to look at Minako with admiration.

'**Ultimate tag' my ass.**

_Better explanation that hunting living nightmares at midnight every night. Though, that would probably be an effective way to make sure she goes to sleep early._

"… Really?"

Seeing Maiko look at her with that look in her eyes was completely adorable, but unfortunately had to be put down.

"Not really. I'm just in much better shape than you"

Maiko pouting was competing with admiration in terms of breaking the adorableness scale.

"I'm also in better shape that the vast majority of people my age so don't feel too bad about it; okay Maiko-chan?"

That got her smiling again, "Okay, so what should we do now? Oh wait! I need to go home now… Sorry Mina-nee! I gotta go!"

Minako saw Maiko off with a wave, "Later then, Maiko-chan"

Maiko walked down the steps of the shrine and continued down the street and out of sight. Letting out a sigh and letting go of the smile on her face, Minako realized that it _was _getting late. Getting back to the dorm was probably a good idea for tonight; tomorrow was Sunday after all and her workout could wait until then. She walked over to the bench that her bag was still draped on only to freeze mid-step after she realized it was no longer unoccupied.

**Mistress…**

_Thanatos, you don't need to be a god of death to know a dying man._

A thin, sickly looking young man gave Minako a small smile after seeing her freeze, "Ah, sorry to scare you. I would have introduced myself earlier but I saw you playing with Maiko-chan and didn't want to interrupt"

Minako hummed in agreement before sitting down on the bench next to the man.

"I'm Akinari Kamiki"

"Minako Aristato; just call me Minako"

The two shook hands before Akinari rose one eyebrow, "You don't like honorifics, do you? But before with Maiko-chan…"

Minako nodded in understanding, "I'm willing to make an exception for her"

"Ah…" Akinari also nodded, "She's… incredibly bright"

Minako just gave him a questioning look.

"Her eyes are so bright… and full of life. And then there is me: struggling to breathe on a hospital bed. Can you understand what I'm going through?"

Minako mulled it over before responding, "I'm _acquainted_ with Death in a very vague and figurative way. But the terrors of slowly dying and being unable to do anything about it are very different from the terrors I face; at least I can do something about them"

**I'd like you to know that I am genuinely insulted right now.**

"Yes, there is truth to that" Akinari looked straight into Minako's eyes, "Your eyes… I don't see any light in them. You _are _someone accustomed to death. But… they're not hollow… You stand before the doorway to Death; but instead of willing entering or being scared, you guard it…"

**Uh…** **Can he see me?**

_You have no physical form, so no._

"The light in your eyes has long since been crushed; but in its place is resolution, not despair. I pity the ones that stand between you and your goals" Akinari gave Minako a genuine smile.

"You and me both, Akinari-san" Minako rose from the bench and put on her messenger bag, "Pleasure chatting with you, but I must go"

"Goodbye, Minako"

Minako gave Akinari a wave over her shoulder before leaving.

* * *

_Iwatodai Dorm_ (Evening)

* * *

"I'm back"

Minako's entrance caught the attention of Yutono, who was sitting in the lounge and working on schoolwork. He flashed her a quick smile before returning to his work.

"Welcome back. I was wondering where you ran off to"

Minako walked over to the couch and put her messenger bag down on the floor next to it, "Just taking a walk around the neighborhood". She then grabbed her school work and opened up to where she left off during class.

The two worked silently until Yutono started to bite his lip.

"You want to ask something?" Minako decided now was a good time to ask.

"Ha ha… Is it really that obvious?" Yutono continued after Minako just nodded, "It's just… Why'd you volunteer to join us? I mean, I'm glad you're joining and all but…"

"You can't understand why I'd do it because you think I don't trust you all" Minako just looked past Yutono in thought, "Well, I guess that there are few reasons, but the main ones are that it's better to be a part of a group fighting those things than alone and that you all know what Hamo is going through"

"I see…"

...

"You have another question"

Yutono looked away in embarrassment, "Do you mind… helping me with this? I don't remember Mr. Ono talking about this…"

Minako took a look at the handout Yutono was working on, "Oh, well that's because he went on a tangent about how the Stone Age methods of tool making were similar to how katanas are sharpened. Here, it's…"

The two spent the rest of the evening working through their schoolwork together.

* * *

_Iwatodai Dorm _(Late Night)

* * *

"And… Done!"

Yutono finished his last handout with a flourish before throwing his pen onto the coffee table. Minako had finished her work shortly before he did and had already put all her school work back into her messenger bag.

"Jeez it's late…" A quick check of his watch told Yutono that it was almost midnight.

Minako rejoined Yutono with two glasses of water from the kitchen, "Hmm, and so it is…". Minako paused briefly before a small smirk crept onto her face, "Want me to go back to my room so you can watch me sleep?"

Yutono spat out the water he was drinking, then coughed briefly before responding, "Could you _please_ not mention that? I guess I should be glad you didn't tell anyone about it…"

Minako chuckled slightly before finishing her water. There were only a few more minutes until midnight. "Hey, remember how you were saying that you were sorry about being useless back at the hospital?"

Yutono flinched at the rather blunt way Minako reminded him of his words, but nodded nonetheless.

"Well tonight, we're going to change that"

* * *

_Iwatodai Dorm Rooftop_ (Dark Hour)

* * *

"So Minako, mind explaining to me why'you just nearly took my head off with your sword?"

Minako walked back to the other side of the roof that Yutono was standing near, twirling her two and a half foot long katana absentmindedly in one hand. Yutono, on the other hand, was unarmed other than his Evoker.

"I may know nothing about 'Persona', but from what I can tell it seems to be your best bet for fighting those nasties. So, tonight, you're going to summon yours under pressure"

Minako stopped twirling her sword around and turned back to face Yutono.

"So… What kind of pressure are we talking about here? Like, -WHOA!"

Yutono was literally cut-off by Minako rushing forward, stopping the sword only an inch away from his neck. Yutono had only gotten his Evoker to his temple in the same amount of time.

"Killing intent" were Minako's only words as she again backed away from Yutono. "I'm going to teach you a lesson I learned the hard way; that those things are trying to kill you. Every one of those nasties has the ability to end your life so when fighting them, you cannot show any hesitation. So keep your eyes open…"

Minako turned around once again before dropping into a lower stance than usual.

"… Watch your opponent…"

Her legs tensed as she brought her sword over her head.

"… And pull the trigger"

Minako rushed forward but at the halfway point on the roof she launched herself into the air, fully intending to cut Yutono in half vertically.

**CRASH**

She never made it that far.

A small whirlwind intercepted Minako and knocked her back to her original side of the roof. She landed easily with a quick backflip to right herself and sheathed her sword into its place on her left hip.

"Nice job, Yutono-kun…" Minako's voice trailed off as she finally got a look at Yutono and his Persona.

He was facing a woman wearing pink chained to what looked to be the skull of a bull with a look of what seemed to be pain and longing.

_Shit, I know _that _look._

One word shed light on the situation.

"… Mom?"

The woman gave a responsive nod to his question before straining against her chains in an attempt to reach out at Yutono with her hand. Yutono reached out for hers with his own and as he grasped it firmly, his Persona shattered into blue glass-like fragments that returned to Yutono's body.

He then collapsed onto his knees, grabbing onto his Evoker with both hands. Minako rushed over to him after he fell.

"How're holding up there?"

Yutono let out a dry laugh, "If I said I'm fine, would you believe me?"

Minako just shook her head before offering him a hand, pulling him to his feet after he accepted it.

"So… I'm going to guess and say you're going to want an explanation for that?"

"Not now, you're in no condition to be pouring your heart out to me right now. Wait until Hamo wakes up; I'm sure he'll be wanting to hear your story too"

* * *

4/12 _Naganaki Shrine _(Late Morning)

* * *

It had been a rather uneventful Sunday morning for Minako. She'd woken up before any of the other residents of the dorm which wasn't too hard seeing as Mitsuo was still out on business, Akiri was catching up on her sleep, and Yutono was still recovering from last night. So Minako downed her usual workout gear – bike shorts that reached her knees rather than her mid-thighs and a black runner's jacket over her bindings with her hair in a ponytail – and took off on a run around Iwatodai.

After the 5th or so officer had stopped her and asked why she was sprinting around the city at 7 AM, Minako decided to finish her workout at the shrine she'd found the day before. She'd been in her last set of upside-down sit ups on the jungle gym when someone else entered the shrine. Seeing as they barely spared her a glance, Minako resumed the last of her workout; music from her headphones blocking out whatever the visitor was doing.

And that's where things stopped being uneventful.

**Mistress, I think you want to have a look at this.**

_Hmmm?_

Minako reached up and detached herself from the jungle gym and lowered herself onto the ground. Reaching to where she tied her mp3 player to her arm, Minako stopped her music and took a second look at the visitor. A tall, brown-haired woman with a dark look on her face wearing a maroon coat was standing over near the main building of the shrine.

_What did you want me to see, Thanatos? Yeah, she looks terrifying but I don't…_

Thanatos didn't respond in words, but rather let Minako feel what he was feeling. It was only her years of fighting that kept her from physically flinching when she felt the power rolling off the woman.

**She 'feels' similar to Akiri, at least in terms of having one of those 'Persona'. But there's more to it.**

_Which is?_

… **Mistress, she's destroying her body to keep it in check.**

Minako could tell now; whatever the woman had was powerful and it was thrashing against whatever she'd been using to keep it in line. The winces of discomfort that the woman occasionally displayed were proof enough that she knew what was happening. Minako started walking over to the brunette, half an idea forming in her head. A quick check to make sure they were alone let Minako know she was in the clear to act.

_Thanatos, start giving off killing intent._

**Right Mistress…**

Keeping a steady pace, Minako made her way over to the woman stopping next to her. The woman glared at her from the corner of her eye but Minako just shrugged without saying a word and stared back at her. The woman winced as her Persona reacted to Thanatos' presence, raging against its chains.

Minako heard Thanatos scoff in the back of her mind before giving off a spike of killing intent. The woman's eye's widened as her Persona went quiet.

"Wha… Who the hell are you?" The brunette's voice was low and rough, a sign of not often using it.

Minako shot her a lop-sided grin, "Me? I'm Death itself"

The brunette seemed taken aback but didn't respond as an albino Shiba Inu broke through the brush surrounding the shrine and ran up to her. The brunette visibly softened at the dog's presence, as she reached into her coat's pockets and took out a container of dog food.

"The dog yours?"

The brunette kept her eyes on the dog as she fed it, "No, she lives at the shrine"

Minako bent down to give the dog a scratch behind the ears, "She got a name?"

"Kora,… Koramaru"

Minako hummed in acknowledgement as she stood back up. A small silence settled over the two as they watched Kora finish her meal.

…

"You got a reason for destroying your body like you've been?"

The brunette's grim expression spoke extremely loudly to Minako.

Minako reached up and tapped the side of the brunette's head, right beneath her beanie, "It's got to do with that thing inside you, doesn't it"

This time, the brunette spun around to fully face Minako, scowling darkly, "What the hell do you know?"

"Enough" Minako looked back at the brunette with a thoughtful look on her face, "Tell you what, stop doing whatever is killing you and come back next week. I'll be here to shut that thing up again"

The brunette looked shocked, realizing that Castor hadn't been raging against the suppressants since the blunette had approached her.

Minako simply turned around and walked away from the woman, leaving the shrine.

* * *

_Iwatodai Dorm _(Late Night)

* * *

Akiri was still awake, despite the school day looming in the near future. Yutono and Minako had already gone to sleep, but Akiri was waiting for Mitsuo to final come back to the dorm. He'd been away dealing with the Kirijo Group's reactions to the recent Shadow attacks and, despite his best attempts, Akiri knew that all the late nights and paperwork were wearing down on the heir.

So when the doors to the dorm opened and Mitsuo walked in looking like he hadn't slept in a few days (which Akiri knew was probably true), she was right there to pull his briefcase out of his hands with her good arm and lead him over to the dining table. She then forced him to sit down and accept a mug of tea – that Minako had brewed earlier at Akiri's request – before taking the seat next to him.

"Long weekend?"

Mitsuo finished his mug of tea before answering, "Long doesn't begin to cover it, Akiri. All the scientists over at the lab wanted my report on that abnormal Shadow you and Aristato-kun fought. Then they wanted an explanation on Aristato-san's actions, which we still don't have; and that's with not mentioning the hydra she apparently fought"

Akiri couldn't help but wince, "Ouch. Yutono and I spoke to her the night she got back from the hospital. Turns out that she's been fighting Shadows for about three years"

Mitsuo's eyebrow rose at that comment, but let Akiri continue, "Thing is, she's been experiencing the Dark Hour for a longer period of time"

"How long?"

"She doesn't know. She apparently doesn't remember _not _experiencing the Dark Hour"

Mitsuo mulled over Akiri's words for a moment before sighing, "It seems the Kirijo's sins are more far reaching than we know"

"Mitsuo…" Akiri grabbed his shoulder and tightly squeezed it.

Mitsuo gave out another sigh, "I know, I know…"

"Don't worry, I'll slaughter those Shadows; no matter how dangerous they are"

Mitsuo grabbed Akiri's hand off his shoulder, "That's exactly what I'm worried about; don't you understand, Akiri? That Shadow almost killed you…"

Akiri looked back at the table silently.

"I know you want to get back into the fight, just promise me that you'll let yourself properly heal before you do Akiri"

Akiri looked back at the look of concern on Mitsuo's face before responding, "Alright… I promise. Just promise me you'll actually get some sleep tonight"

* * *

_Elsewhere_

* * *

Blue. Velvet blue.

That was the first thing that Hamono noticed as his consciousness slowly returned to himself.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room, my dear young man"

As Hamono's vision cleared, an old man in a suit with a _very_ long nose and grin came into view from across the table they were seated at.

"Ughh… Where am I anyways?"

The old man chuckled at Hamono's confusion, "You are in a place between reality and dreams; between mind and matter. My name is Igor and I am delighted to make your acquaintance"

Hamono snapped up at the old man's words, "Is this the afterlife?"

Igor's grin widened, "No, you are not dead. You are currently asleep in your own world, but are perfectly fine"

"Are Mina and Yutono alright as well?"

Igor chuckled again, "They are just fine; though if the one you refer to as 'Mina' is who I am thinking of you have nothing to worry about"

"That's… good"

"Now, you were summoned here as a result of awakening to your power. Now, normally you'd need to have signed a contract to enter here, but I can still bring you here regardless. However, you'll still need to sign one to return here"

With a wave of his hand, a contract and quill materialized in front of Hamono.

"All the contract says is that you must accept responsibility for your actions. Abide by the contract, and you will be able to access the Velvet Room and its services"

Hamono briefly read over the contract – as it only had one sentence on it – before signing his name on the dotted line.

"Excellent; now, I'd like you to hold onto this" Igor slid a blue key over to Hamono, "This will allow you to access the Velvet Room"

"So what kinds of _services_ do you provide?"

"I will talk to you about them the next time you come here. After all, time marches on in your world"

Igor raised his hand and Hamono felt himself fade back into unconsciousness.

* * *

4/19 _Port Island Station Medical Center_

* * *

Hamono awoke to sunlight streaming in through one of the windows. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes revealed a white hospital room; one with Yutono working on some schoolwork on his lap and Mina sitting on the edge of his bed with her own work. Waiting for her to finish the work she was currently on, Hamono reached up and glomped his twin from behind.

Yutono was started to the point of dropping all his work onto the floor while Minako just sighed.

"Hamo, announce your presence when you wake up from a coma"

"Don't wanna" Hamono just snuggled deeper into his sister.

"How are you doing?" Yutono evidentially regained his composure, "You've been out for a week"

Hamono thought it over for a bit before responding, "I feel alright"

"The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with you, but you just wouldn't wake up"

"I told you Hamo likes to sleep too much"

Hamono looked up from Minako's shoulder with a look of mock surprise, "Wait, my Mina's been talking?! _To other people_?!" Hamono squeezed his sister tighter, "I'm sooo proud of you~"

Minako, unable to glare at her brother, settled for deadpanning to Yutono, "Do you understand now why I said I needed to be there when he woke up?"

Yutono snickered, "I guess so. Look… I'm sorry you two"

Hamono joined Minako in giving him a questioning look.

"I'm sorry about having to hide everything from you two. You know? About the dorm and why you two were brought here" Yutono visibly squirmed for a second before continuing, "To be honest, I've read both of your files; so I know about what's happened to you two. It's just… I'm like you two. Ten years ago, there was an explosion in Port Island and… my mom was caught in the blast. Afterwards, my dad kind of _fell apart_, so I'm not on very good terms with him. You two only have each other, right?" Both of the twins nodded in agreement, "Look, you two can come to me if you need any help. You both protected me when I should have, so it's the least I can do in return"

"I'll keep that in mind, Yutono" Hamono responded; Minako nodded again.

"Ahh… I feel so much better without that hanging over me" Yutono gave the twins an easy smile.

Minako removed Hamono's arms from herself before reaching into her bag and taking out a stack of papers, "_This _is what you've missed while absent. I'll leave my bag with you, Hamo, just don't forget it" Minako then got up and walked to the door, "I'll see you two back at the dorm"

Hamono looked over at Yutono as his twin left, "Soo… What did I miss this past week?"

Yutono was startled out of staring at the door Minako just left through by a grinning Hamono, "What?"

"C'mon, spill the dirt. Mina was talking, _to you_. Don't you get what that means?" Hamono's expression sobered, "Mina only really talks when she has to, or if she's with someone she trusts; otherwise she might as well be a mute" Hamono's grin returned, "Not only that, she said 'I'll see you **two** back at the dorm'. So, what did you and Mina do when I was gone for her to trust you?"

Yutono backed himself into his chair as Hamono, and his grin, leaned forward, "Whaa…"

Hamono backed up with a thoughtful expression on his face, "I approve"

…

"What"

"I approve, you know" Hamono motioned towards the door, "You and Mina; I approve…"

…

…

"… of you two being friends!" Hamono started laughing at his friend's shocked face before elbowing him in the ribs, "What else did you think I was talking about?"

Yutono attempted to glare at Hamono, but he could feel the blood rushing into his face to spite him, "You… Ugh… You're as bad as Jackie!"

When Hamono didn't stop laughing at him, Yutono got up and rushed out of hospital room.

"Oh… Hhaha… it is _good_ to be back!"

**A/N: Yes, Hamono makes his return. Run while you can.**

**In other news, I've come up with another story for P3. The first chapter is mostly finished and I'll probably be uploading it before I start classes again on Tuesday (1/20). So check out my profile if you're interested.**


	8. Chapter 8: April 20

**A/N: Greetings again everyone, I hope anyone reading this from the East Coast is enjoying the snow storm that's currently raging outside my window. Always nice to see real snow show up; not the usual grey sludge that I'm used to.**

**Anyways, WARNING SHAMELESS SELF-PLUG/ADVERTISING AHEAD: I apologize for doing this, but I'd like to mention that that other story I'd said I'd be writing along side this piece in the A/N at the end of last chapter IS up. It's only got a single chapter up right now, but I'd appreciate any criticism that you can give me on that piece as well.**

**Reviews:**

**Nunas the No Name: Minako's going to have her own ways of terrifying the population of Iwatodai so don't worry about that. Writing Hamono teasing Yutono was a scene I'd had planned out for a while, along side the scenes with Maiko and Akinari. Minako doesn't have the Wild Card and, for the record, won't be having any Social Links or anything similar but I'll be having her interact with a lot of Hamono's Social Links / the other SEES members. And in terms of character deaths (later on in this fic), I already know what I'm going to be doing. To put it bluntly, I don't think anyone's going to like what I've got in store. Hell, _I_ don't like what I've got in store.**

**Bleak Stranger: Persona Gender-Bending isn't exactly a new concept, though I'm hoping to fill the massive void that is a comprehensive P3 Gender-Bender fic that is currently on this site. Yes, changing the voices around to fit their new genders is going to take a bit to get used to though only the members of SEES are gender-bent so that should help a bit. Thanks for your interest and thanks for the luck; I know I'll need it.**

* * *

4/20 _Port Island Station _(After School)

* * *

Hamono was fairly certain he was slowly going insane as a result of moving back his family's hometown.

It would explain why the world seemed to twist itself into something _else_ at midnight.

It would explain why he vaguely remembered annihilating a rather nasty-looking spider on the rooftop of his dormitory by shooting himself with a gun.

It would explain why he woke up from his 'coma' to find Mina resembling a functioning member of society.

…

…

'**Tis not a very polite way of speaking of Eurydice**

…

It would also explain the voice he now occasionally heard in his head.

…

Hamono managed to keep himself from sobbing at how utterly confused he currently was. Explaining to his silent twin walking beside him why he suddenly burst into tears would be _problematic. _Remembering that Yutono had told him to come straight back to the door after class today was possibly an indication that he'd be getting some answers soon.

Walking the remaining distance to the monorail, Hamono passed through the turnstiles next to Minako before waiting for the train on the platform.

"How're you holding up?" Hamono looked over curiously at his sister, who had quietly spoken up while still looking at the other side of the tracks.

Hamono sighed before forwarding his gaze again, "I feel fine. I don't being asleep for a week did anything to me"

Oddly enough, Minako looked at him with a strange expression before looking away again without responding.

Hamono grimaced slightly. _I know that look. That wasn't kind of answer she was looking for._

The remaining time waiting for the monorail was spent in silence, with the arrival of said train giving Hamono a reason to smile again.

**How does that strange carriage move? I see no horses…**

The doors to the monorail closed behind the twins as they boarded. Hamono shot a smile at a group of classmate a bit farther in before turning back to look out the window.

The sooner he got some answers, the sooner he could go back to a semi-sane life.

* * *

_Iwatodai Dorm_ (Evening)

* * *

The twins had entered the fourth floor lounge to find all members of the dorm, including Ikutsuki, present. Hamono was mildly surprised when his twin showed no hesitation in sitting next to a silverette that he'd never met before and quickly sat down on a chair that had been brought over for him.

"It's good to see you back on your feet, Hamono-kun" Ikutsuki had broken the comfortable silence that was present in the room, "You had us all worried for a while. Now, I believe you've met everyone present except for Akiri here"

Ikutsuki motioned to the silverette before Hamono offered his hand, "Hamono Aristato, a pleasure to meet you sempai"

"Akiri Sanada; don't worry too much about formalities with me, Mitsuo here's the only one who's a stick in the mud about that" Hamono and Akiri shook hands while Mitsuo lightly glared at the silverette.

"Now that the introductions are out of the way" Ikutsuki spoke up again, "I'd like to get to the point of this meeting. Would you believe me if I said there were more than 24 hours in a day?"

Hamono mulled over his thoughts before glancing slightly at his twin. When she gave him a slight nod, he spoke again, "If you'd have asked me that question a month ago, I'd have said no. But considering what I remember…"

There was a sobering silence over the rest of the residents for a few moments before it was once again broken.

"So, you remember what transpired a week ago Aristato-kun?" When he nodded, Mitsuo continued "We'll you'd be correct to not believe that a day is limited to 24 hours. That first night when you two arrived, you had to have noticed what happened at midnight. Green moon, blood and coffin filled streets; we call that time period the 'Dark Hour'. It's a time period that exists between midnight and the moment directly after midnight"

"Not all people experience the Dark Hour, but it does happen" Ikutsuki spoke again, "It happens every night, and will continue to happen for the conceivable future. Thankfully, those that don't experience the Dark Hour are safely sealed away in those coffins you see around"

"However, the fun only begins when you're not hiding in a coffin" This time, Akiri spoke up, a twisted grin on her face, "You fought a creature up on the rooftop, right? Well, we call them 'Shadows' and it's our job to hunt them down. Sounds like fun, right?"

"Akiri…" Mitsuo spoke with a mixed tone of exasperation and anger, "Why do you keep acting like this is a game? How much of your body is going to have to break before you understand?"

"Calm down you two, she's proficient at what she does" Ikutsuki looked amused at the two upperclassmen's argument, "Anyways, we're known as SEES, The Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad. We hunt down Shadows, even if we're just a school club on paper. I work as the club advisor, while Mitsuo here is the leader"

"As you can speak from experience, Aristato-kun, Shadows have ill-intent against us. If the carnage you witnessed first-hand wasn't enough, Shadows are responsible for the vast majority of the incidents plaguing Iwatodai right now"

Hamono didn't like where this was heading, "We're the only ones that can do anything against them, aren't we?"

"Unfortunately that is the case; only a small fraction of people can combat Shadows. However, you've done it before, using a power we refer to as a 'Persona'"

Hamono shuddered slightly as he remembered the extreme euphoria that he'd experienced on that rooftop. For a few seconds, he'd felt absolutely amazing – invincible even – but he figured that if the whiplash of spending a week in a coma was any measure, that euphoria held a deep danger to himself.

Mitsuo rose from his seat before spinning a silver metal case around on the coffee table in front of the twins, opening it to reveal two red armbands and two silver pistols.

"I'll cut to the case; Aristato-kun, we'd like you to join us at SEES to aid us in combating the Shadows"

Hamono raised his eyebrow at his sempai as he realized that _someone_ had been completely excluded from the conversation, "Is there something I should know about right now? You all have been talking directly to me and, last time I check, I'm not an only child"

"I volunteered a while ago, Hamo" Minako calmly stood up before taking out an armband and a pistol from the case. Turning to her twin, she shrugged slightly at the confused expression on his face, "I'm just here on formality's sake"

…

"Well, I had every intention to join anyways, but I guess that just about seals the deal" Hamono rose from his seat with a smile on his face before collecting the remaining gear, "Thanks for having me, everyone. Take care of me"

"Thanks for join us. I was a bit afraid you'd say no…" Yutono looked sheepishly at Hamono before speaking.

"Oh, you two" Ikutsuki re-addressed the twins, "I'm not sure what went wrong with your boarding assignment, but I guess it all worked out in the end"

The room quieted into an awkward silence. Hamono just looked from person to person, Ikutsuki's slight chuckles basically confirming that what he said was just a lie.

***CRASH***

Hamono could only stand frozen in silence as time seemed to stop and a card formed in front of him as more voices rang through his head.

**Thou hast established a new bond. Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personae of the Fool Arcana.**

Seeing as time seemed to catch up and no one missed a beat, Hamono assumed that only he experienced what just happened. The warm feeling in his chest vanished when he noticed his twin taking out a small black device before repeatedly tossing it into the air with a massive grin on her face.

"Is that so, Chairman? So are you saying you had no reason to, say, _bug_ our rooms?"

Everyone in the room sans Hamono froze at her comment – Hamono already petrified from seeing his twin with her predatory smile again – and slowly turned to face the blunette.

Everyone then realized that Minako was tossing the hidden camera up and down, some loose wires trailing behind the black plastic casing, "Isn't it just _amazing _what you can do with a screwdriver and some wire cutters?"

* * *

_Iwatodai Dorm _(Late Night)

* * *

After managing to officially scare the crap out of the current members of SEES, Minako had pocketed her "acquired" hidden camera before excusing herself and her brother from the lounge. Trailing after Hamono, the twins arrived at his room; Minako having stopped briefly in her room to retrieve her tools before continuing on their ways.

Minako wasted no time on locating the hidden camera and getting to work on removing it.

"Quite the interesting situation we've been thrown into, huh Mina?" Hamono dropped down onto his bed. Minako simply hummed in response before continuing her work.

"So, about you volunteering…"

Minako paused before turning to face her twin, "Even if I had refused to join SEES, I'd be hunting those 'Shadows' regardless"

Hamono immediately wrapped himself around his sister, "Dammit Mina, can you act like a lady for just once?"

She let a small smile cross her face before responding, "You're sounding a lot like our foster mother, Hamo. And no, I can't act like a lady"

Hamono released his hold on his twin before stepping back, "We're in some heavy shit, aren't we…"

Minako went silent again before finishing up her work on the camera, "The heaviest I've ever been in. But, they need our help; that's why I volunteered" She finished removing the camera before slipping it into her jacket pocket. Picking up her tools, she turned back to her brother, startling him with the amount of determination in her eyes, "It won't be easy… and it will definitely be dangerous. But, I'll make sure you at least adapt to this"

***CRASH***

Hamono jumped in place at just how much _louder _that was from the previous one.

**THOU HAST GAINED A NEW BOND. THOU SHALT BE REWARDED WHEN THY CREATES PERSONAE OF THE DEATH ARCANA.**

_Owww_…

Hamono gave a small smile to his sister as she left, attempting to hide the headache forming in his head.

**My… Has Eurydice become complacent with Hades? Or is it Thanatos?**

…

Hamono smashed his palm into his face. He knew he was forgetting something.

* * *

**A/N: Now, Hamono joins the 'voices in head' train. Let me know what you guys think of this since I thought of this on the spot.**

**Now, considering I've got off of classes tomorrow, there's a slight chance that I'll be able to post the next chapter up soon. Since I promised this chapter would include SEES's first Tartarus visit, the next chapter will have that and the first full expedition of the first block. So the next chapter will have lots of action in it.**

**And, as I'm sure you've now noticed, Pharos won't be present; at least as Hamono's Death Social Link. Instead, that'll be Minako's spot. Pharos will be making his return maybe in the chapter after the next but he'll be playing a different role than before.**


	9. Chapter 9: April 21

**A/N: This chapter has it all! Plot development! Action! Minako still being casual about fighting a hydra!**

**... I think I've milked the Minako vs hydra fight for long enough. Though, pretty soon, Minako will have bigger fish to fry *maniacal laughter***

**Funny how snow storms give me insomnia. Aside from randomly getting insomnia every other week or so. But hey, that just means that I'll be spending more time working on this fic!**

**Reviews:**

**sociallinksora: I never really thought about it like that, but you've got a good point there. Though, if you know about P3, you'd know that the Thanatos Minako currently has isn't exactly a Persona. What exactly Thanatos is is a bit of a spoiler, though the circumstances behind Minako "obtaining" Thanatos is an even bigger spoiler considering its gonna be a "The Journey of Two" exclusive. Unfortunately, that won't be spelled out until Jan 31st. I'll be leaving plenty of clues as to what's going on but it won't be until the Nyx Fight that everything will be brought out into the open. I'm glad you're having fun with this fic. I'm having fun writing it, I just hope I'll be able to finish it :S.**

* * *

4/21 _Iwatodai Dorm_ (Early Evening)

* * *

"Minnaaaa! GET DOWN HERE!"

Minako blinked away the small amount of tiredness left in her eyes from her small nap. The meeting that occurred last night was _interesting_ in a few ways.

**Snniff… I'm so proud of you… I taught you so well…**

_These are pretty interesting. I'm going to have to take a closer look at these cameras when I get a chance._

"MINA!"

Minako placed the small cameras back into her desk before throwing back on her school jacket. She'd fallen asleep right after coming back from school so she left her room looking completely disheveled. Leaving the girls' floor and walking downstairs to the lounge barefooted, Minako arrived with the full attention of Hamono, Yutono, and Akiri on her.

"What? I was napping"

Hamono reacted in what was obviously mock surprise; rushing in front of Yutono and Akiri, "Quickly! Hide all the men! And possibly the women too! We must keep them safe from being ensnared in Mina's beauty!"

To his own credit, Yutono managed to not bash his friend's face in and settled for a tired sigh. Akiri chuckled a bit before speaking, "Alright, kids, now that we're all here there's someone I'd like to introduce to you all. So I'd like you all to meet…" Akiri turned to look towards the door along with everyone else.

…

**Your friend 'Yutono' is still staring at Eurydice…**

"What in the world is taking you so long?" Akiri was clearly done with waiting as she flung the doors to the dorm open and walked out.

"Hey! I've got a lot of possessions!"

Yutono visibly paled before turning to the doors of the dorm, "Is… that who I think it is?"

To the chagrin of Yutono, the delight of Hamono, and the complete disinterest of Minako, Jackie herself walked through the front doors pushing a trolley full of suitcases.

"Hehhe… Wassup?"

"No no nononono… You have got to be joking with me. What in the world is _she_ doing here?" Yutono was clearly not pleased with Jackie's arrival.

"This is Jackie Iori, from Class 2-F; though it seems you already know that… She'll be staying here from now on"

"Don't tell me… _SHE_ has the potential?"

"That's right; I found her a few days ago at a local convenience when I was out and about. I explained the situation to her and she agreed to join us"

"And you managed to do all that without being torn apart by Kirijo-sempai how exactly…?"

Every looked over at Minako who had spoken for the second time after arriving before slowly turning back to Akiri. She'd paled slightly and looked away after noticing all the attention on her. Hamono could have sworn he heard brief mutterings of "… how did I forget…" and "… he'd kill me…" but at that point Jackie spoke up.

"Yeah, she found me on the floor surrounded by coffins and bawling my eyes out. Pretty embarrassing, huh? Akiri-sempai said that that was normal at first though; freaking out, disorientation, memory loss. Any of you have those issues?"

"Sounds about right for me" Yutono responded.

"If I'm remembering correctly, I was fine. Though I was with Mina when it first happened, so maybe that had something to do with it" Hamono piped in.

…

"I don't remember first experiencing that time… It's been too long" Minako muttered the last of her response out.

"Right…, so how long have you all been active?" Jackie attempted to change the conversation.

"A few months for me" Yutono offered with a shrug.

"It was the night that Mina and I arrived here in Iwatodai. So, that'd be about two weeks total but only a little over half a week conscious"

"Wait! So you being at the hospital for a week was because of those monsters?" Jackie looked at Hamono with concern, but the undertones of excitement were obvious.

"Yeah… Yutono, Mina, and I were attacked a week ago on the dorm's roof. I wasn't injured, just exhausted"

Jackie turned her attention to Yutono, who sighed at her expecting look, "I was fine too, it was just so late when I got back from the hospital that it'd have been ridiculous for me to go to class the next day. Before you ask, Mitsuo-sempai was absent because he had a bunch of paperwork to do and had to visit a lab or something"

Jackie finally turned her attention to Minako, "I got injured a bit by a hydra that was blocking the path to the hospital, that's all"

Before Jackie could form a proper response, Akiri found her voice again, "Alright, if you've all swapped stories enough, we finally have enough people to go _there_"

"You wouldn't be talking about Tartarus, would you?" Yutono seemed a little put-off by his sempai's words.

"That's right; we'll be meeting up down here at 11:30. Until then, you're free to do what you have to do" Akiri spoke before turning away and walking up the stairs.

"Soo…." Everyone's attention returned to Jackie, "Who wants to help me move all my things to my room?"

"We'd be happy to help!" Hamono enthusiastically replied.

The luggage had been distributed amongst the four teens before Jackie spoke again, "Heheh… Yuticchi, Hamicchi, and Minako-kun all in my room at the same time… Who knows what might happen?~"

Minako and Yutono immediately froze, looked at each other, nodded, threw their luggage cases back onto the trolley, and walked over to the lounge while talking between themselves.

"You're a moron, Jackie-chan; you know that right?" Hamono scolded Jackie, but didn't drop the luggage he was carrying.

"Aw, come on! I was joking… mostly. And, hey! Don't call me that!"

…

"… You know, I never thanked you for helping me"

Minako gave Yutono a questioning look before he continued, "With my Persona; you know, that night on the roof. Though, I'm not too sure what I could do; I certainly can't cook like you can"

Hamono, about to begin walking up the stairs, froze. Running back to the lounge and pulling Minako into a headlock, he questioned his twin, "Mina… Did you cook something while I was in the hospital? And you didn't think of letting me have any?"

* * *

_Port Island outside of Gekkoukan High School_ (Near Midnight)

* * *

"What are we doing here? Why are we at school?" Jackie questioned out loud as the members of SEES stood outside the school gates.

"You'll see" Akiri answered before checking his phone, "It's almost midnight"

At the stroke of midnight, the world twisted as green moon light barely illuminated Gekkoukan High School.

At least, what _was _Gekkoukan High School. The entire structure groaned before shooting up, up, and up into the sky; forming a tower that went through the cloud-line, beautiful in a sick and twisted way that only the Dark Hour could produce.

The two newest members looked at the tower in muted shock, while Minako slightly grimaced at the sight.

"This is Tartarus" Mitsuo broke the silence this time, "A labyrinth that forms only during the Dark Hour"

"Tartarus? What happened to our school?!"

"Relax Jackie; when the Dark Hour ends, everything goes back to normal"

"Still" Hamono spoke up, "Jackie's got a point; do you know why our school turns into a tower?"

Mitsuo looked down slightly before responding, "… No"

…

"Regardless" Akiri cut in, "You can think of Tartarus as a Shadow nest; they all seem to come from here. Pretty interesting, huh?"

"Akiri, you'll be staying with me at the entrance, _right_?" Mitsuo looked at Akiri with a terrifying smile while standing beside the bike he'd rode there.

"Yeah, yeah"

…

Minako let out a sigh; the gates were open but no one was making a move towards the tower. Grabbing her twin's arm, she walked forwards, "Come on, don't we have a wife of yours to find or something?"

In the back of Hamono's mind, a voice chuckled.

* * *

_Tartarus _(Dark Hour)

* * *

After everyone got over the shock of how the inside of the lobby looked, Hamono noticed a familiar looking blue door just to the left of the staircase leading further inward.

Walking over and opening the door transported him to a familiar room with a familiar long-nosed man.

"Hello again, my dear young man" Igor grinned at Hamono, "I see you have begun your journey. What is this tower? And why is it here? Regrettably, you do not have the answers to those questions yet. But I can assure you that you will find them. But in order to find them, you must harness your power"

Hamono nodded silently, figuring that he didn't have any input that would help at the moment.

"Your power is unique. It is like the number zero; unique and limitless but at the same time non-existent. It is called the Wild Card; simply put, you can wield multiple Personae. Your power is currently weak, but it is strengthened through your bonds with others. Ah… I see you already have two such bonds"

A swipe of Igor's hands and two tarot cards floated above the table between the two; the Fool and Death.

"You are indeed an interesting guest; on one hand, this is the beginning of a long journey for you. However, you must understand that with it will come changes. Change is neither good nor bad, only different"

Hamono decided to speak up now, "Should I be concerned that my sister is linked to this 'Death Arcana'?"

Igor brought his hand together and the cards vanished from sight, "Ah… Minako Aristato… So I was right after all. Do not worry, young man, your sister is certainly a very capable young woman. Which reminds me, there are two people I wish to introduce to you"

From behind Igor approached two blue-clad individuals with similar platinum hair and white skin. "My name is Elizabeth" the woman said, "And I am Theodore" the man said.

"These two are my assistants; they will be helping you along your journey"

"Are you truly the twin brother of Minako Aristato?" the woman had apparently dropped her professionalism as she stared at Hamono excitedly.

Thankfully, Theodore interrupted her, "Sister, please refrain from inquiring about that to Master Hamono; you _do _remember what the Mistress said?"

With the siblings calming down, Igor continued, "Now there is one more individual to show to you, though you've already met" Igor pointed behind Hamono.

He turned around to face the metallic form of Orpheus sitting in a chair similar to his own.

'**Tis good to see you from outside your own mind.**

Hamono just stared at his Persona in mute shock.

Igor chuckled, "I do believe your comrades may have the answer to the question you want to ask. Speaking of which, they are waiting for you"

And with that, Hamono was forced out of the Velvet Room and back into reality.

And back into Minako's intensive stare. And why did it look like she was leaning back while looking at him?

"You alright there Hamo?"

"Yeah… Just… Uh, _internal monologue?_"

Everyone stared slightly at the male twin.

"That reminds me; Mitsuo-sempai" The red-head turned fully towards Hamono, "Is it normal if our Personae talk to us?"

Mitsuo chuckled slightly before responding, "As ridiculous as it sounds, yes your Persona will occasionally speak to you. You may also insinuate conversation yourself; as for now, there is no other way to determine a Persona's exact strengths, weaknesses, abilities, etc."

_Soooo… Mind introducing yourself?_

**Thou art I, and I art Thou. I am Orpheus, master of strings. I unfortunately do not resist any forms of damage, and am weak to electricity and darkness. My skills are Bash and Agi.**

"Huh, nifty…"

That comment gained Hamono some strange looks, "It seems my Persona's name is Orpheus, no resistances, weak to electricity and darkness, and he's currently got the skills Bash and Agi"

Yutono looked off to the side before speaking, "Io, resists wind, weak to electricity; skills are just Dia and Garu"

Hamono couldn't help but notice when Minako shot Yutono a concerned look.

"And mine's Hermes! He's awesome against fire but sucks against wind. He just knows Cleave right now though" Jackie said, more than a little excited.

Everyone looked over at Minako, who was already in conversation.

_Three parts truth…._

…**And one part lies?**

She sighed slightly before speaking, "Pharos, nulls fire and darkness, resists ice and electricity, weak to light, no 'active' skills"

"Nulls fire?" Mitsuo spoke up, "I guess that's explains why your clothes were singed but you weren't burned"

"Mina? Is there something you want to tell me?" Hamono was staring at his twin with concern.

Minako, on the other hand, just shrugged, "What? Didn't you hear me before? I fought a hydra; two of the six heads breathed fire… What are you all looking at me for?"

…

"Alright, kids, the four of you are going inside Tartarus tonight so pay attention" Everyone's attention turned back to Akiri.

"Wait, you're saying that you never planned on coming with us?" Yutono was obviously surprised.

"Relax" Mitsuo spoke up, "You all won't be going too far in tonight. We just want you four to explore the first floor to get some experience fighting"

"Before you all go" Akiri cut in, "We'll be assigning a leader to make any necessary decisions"

Jackie's eyes lit up, "Ohh oh! Pick me!"

Akiri visibly rolled her eyes before ignoring the energetic girl, "Mmm… Hamono-kun, you'll be in charge; if you're alright with that"

"Him? Come on! He doesn't look like a leader!" Jackie was clearly upset about not being picked

"Well, he _has _fought them before. Although, if we're going by that…" Yutono trailed off after realizing a major conflict.

"Hamo'd be a better leader than me anyways" Minako cut in, "Besides, I'm not used to working with a group"

"That's part of the reason" Akiri retook the juniors' attention before drawing her Evoker and calmly putting it to the side of her temple, "Can you summon your Persona like he can?"

"O-of course!" Minako managed to not snort at how badly Jackie was at suppressing her fear.

Any amusement she had about the situation was completely drained when she saw the look of pain on Yutono's face.

_I know that look a bit _too _well._

"I think so…"

The attention was back onto Minako, "I don't think I can, but not for the reasons that you'd expect"

…

"This isn't a situation to be taken lightly, kids. Without your Persona, you're screwed"

"I know that" Hamono noticed that Yutono was a lot surer about that then he was previous statements.

"Alright, now that that's out of the way" Akiri walked over to Mitsuo's bike and removed two heavy steel cases and laid them down on the floor, "You all need to gear up; Yutono, here's your bow"

Yutono took his bow and quiver full of arrows from the largest case; the long, two-handed katana lying next to it was snatched up immediately after he backed up a step.

"For me, it's gotta be a katana!" Jackie's eyes were full of excitement as she got a feel for the weapon's weight, occasionally yelling out references to various samurai anime and manga.

Hamono chuckled slightly at the girl's antics before turning his attention to the other case of weapons, "Oh, _this _takes me back". Hamono reached down into the case and pulled out a relatively straight scimitar in its sheathing.

"You used a scimitar before?" Akiri looked up at Hamono with a questioning look.

Hamono smiled back, "Yep; you see, the foster home that Mina and I lived in before coming here had a couple composed of a man who was a bit of a Persian history nut. So while Mina was getting forced into learning how to cook by a more traditional Japanese woman, I learned how to handle and care for a couple antique scimitars that the man owned. Never thought knowing that would come in handy one day"

Mitsuo chuckled slightly, "I'm sure Child Services would be ecstatic to hear your story, but I might just end up sending your foster father a thank you letter for preparing you"

Strapping the sword to his back, Hamono turned to his twin, "Hey, Mina! Maybe they've got a frying pan that you can use to fight with~"

Minako couldn't help but smile at the minor insult, "Keep the frying pan, Hamo, you can use it to actually learn how to cook. As for me, I'm already set to go"

The members of SEES looked over to see the bluenette patting her left hip, which held her Evoker in its holster with a black katana in its sheathing wedged between her clothing and the belt holding the holster.

"I've been meaning to ask" Yutono was the first to speak up, "but where exactly do you keep that sword?"

Minako smiled sweetly back, "Magician's secret"

* * *

After some final checks and re-checks of given equipment, the four-man team walked up the steps and through the entrance into Tartarus.

(_Note: Italicized text here is Mitsuo speaking over microphone)_

"_Can you all hear me?"_

"Whoa?! Sempai, is that you talking?" Jackie was the first to react

"_That's right. I'll be providing support to you four from here"_

"You can see inside of Tartarus?" Hamono asked curiously

"_It's my Persona's ability" _Mitsuo sounded quite proud of her Persona, _"The structure of Tartarus changes frequently, so outside support is vital. I'm not detecting any Shadows in your immediate vicinity, but that is only for now. Be prepared for anything, and watch each other's backs"_

Yutono let out a nervous breath he didn't realize he was holding before muttering under his breath, "Some support…"

"Let's go!" Jackie let out an enthusiastic cry before being pulled back by Hamono, "Hey! What are you doing?"

Hamono rolled his eyes before speaking, "Don't go running off on your own. We're going to want to be smart about this, so let's settle on a formation before we do anything else"

"I'll take the rearguard then" The three other members turned to Minako, "You three need experience, _badly_"

"_Aristato-san has a point; you three need the experience so it is better for her to stay in the back to watch for ambushes. Though, if any abnormally strong Shadows appear, I'll be counting on you to keep the novices safe"_

"Hai, Hai, sempai" Minako responded to Mitsuo's request before moving to the back of the group and leaning against a sickly-green colored wall with pools of blood on the floor around it.

"Novices? Is that really how you think of us?"

Minako looked up questioningly at Jackie who looked slightly put-off by their sempai's and her way of speaking, "Yeah, it is. Because last time I checked, you haven't fought a Shadow before. Unless, of course, you went out and fought them on your own"

Jackie now looked fully put-off.

Hamono sighed before retaking control of the situation, "Jackie-chan, you'll be on the front line with me. Yutono, you'll be in the middle. Mina, try not to fall asleep back there"

Just to spite him, Minako faked falling asleep against the wall before falling into line with the rest of the team.

Hamono unsheathed his scimitar off his back before pointing it forwards cheerfully, "Onwards!"

The group traveled for almost a minute in silence before they made first contact.

"_There's a single Shadow just around that corner"_

"Right" Hamono signaled for the rest of the group to stop before sneaking up to the corner and poking his head around it quickly, walking back to the group afterwards, "Here's the plan: Jackie and I will take this one. Yutono, I want you to cover us and make sure there isn't a second Shadow lying around"

The rest of the team nodding in affirmative, Hamono returned to the corner and, after waiting for the Shadow to turn its back to him, rushed forward with Jackie right behind him. Aiming for the mask, he raised his scimitar to go for a diagonal cut only for…

"AHHH!"

… Jackie to yell out some kind of girly-war cry. The Shadow, obviously reacting to the loud noise from behind it, spun around causing Hamono's attack to miss its mask, taking off an arm instead. He stumbled past the Shadow, its attention on him allowed Jackie to crush the Cowardly Maya by using her sword more like a club. As it dissolved, one of the nearby walls shuddered and a small compartment opened; another Maya lunging from it. It only got a foot from the wall before it was pinned back into it by an arrow. Fully recovered by then from his stumble, Hamono ran his blade through the Maya's mask, killing it instantly.

"_Excellent work! There are some more Shadows up ahead, but they don't appear to have noticed you yet"_

"Alright, sempai" Hamono responded before turning to the others, "Nice kill Jackie-chan, and thanks for the assist Yutono"

"Hehe, I told you I know what I'm doing"

"No problem"

Minako snorted slightly after noticing how completely different the two responded to praise. Yutono just raised an eyebrow at her before going over to retrieve his arrow out of the wall. Jackie didn't appear to hear Minako's response.

"_For the next group, try to get some practice in summoning your Persona"_

"Got it, let's go"

Upon arriving at the next group of Shadows, Hamono once again brought everyone over to strategize.

"Alright, there are three of them this time. I should be able to get the first hit on two of them, so Jackie-chan I want you to finish off the first one I hit and Yutono I want you to kill the second one I hit. By that point, the third Shadow will definitely know that we're here so I'll be counting on you to take it out Mina"

Once again getting the go head, Hamono gave the others a chance to draw their Evokers – and in Mina's case finally put a hand on the hilt of her sword – before rushing out into the open.

"Orpheus!" Hamono shouted as he pulled the trigger, causing the metallic bard to materialize above him and set the first Shadow on fire with a strum of his lyre. Not even bothering to see if Jackie was about to attack or not, he ran to the side and fired again; lighting the other shadow aflame.

"Hermes!" "Io!"

The metallic wings of Hermes formed in front of Jackie before rushing forward and cleaving the still burning shadow in half. The metallic bullhead of Io formed above Yutono before the woman chained within and a strong gust of wind knocked up the shadow into the air as he quickly switched back to his bow and pierced straight through its mask.

The third Shadow turned to retaliate to the sudden attacks, only to walk straight into Minako's sword as she drew it and cut cleanly though the mask in one smooth motion. Two more compartments in the walls shuddered open and two more Mayas lunged at her from opposite directions. Not wasting any momentum, Minako planted her feet before spinning to cut one in half and grab the other right out of the air with her left hand.

Gripping the helpless Maya by its mask hard enough to begin to crack it, Minako held it out at arm's length while it flailed in a useless attempt to get free.

_It's not really worth it to kill these things, is it?_

**Not for you, anyways.**

Walking closer to the rest of the group, Minako couldn't help the small, but clearly humored, smile on her face, "Hey Yutono-kun," as he turned to face her, she motioned with the captive Shadow, "Ball"

Tossing the Maya into the air, Yutono instinctively shot an arrow through its mask, finally finishing it off.

Covering Yutono as he retrieved his arrow, the group fell back into formation before searching for more Shadows.

* * *

"Nice job out there"

The assault team had encountered and eliminated two more groups of Shadows before Mitsuo had informed them that the floor had been cleared, and that they should be making their way back to the lobby. The Dark Hour didn't last forever after all.

"Thanks sempai, just… give me a minute here" Hamono could feel the exhaustion in places on his body he didn't think could get sore.

"Hehe, what's the matter Hamicchi? Can't last with the best of us?" Jackie gave the team leader a cheeky grin, though no one missed the sharp intake of breathe that she took after her verbal jab. "Though, now that you mention it, I am _beat_"

"That's 'cause you were running around like a kid in a candy store back there"

"And you don't look any better, Yuticchi"

"I _am_ still trying to catch my breath, actually"

…

"…What?" Everyone stared at Minako who was only visibly breathing; and not hard at that.

"Looks like you weren't lying about your experience" Akiri shot her a challenging smirk, "You've got endurance, I'll give you that. We'll have to have a competition sometime"

"Sure, when it wouldn't get you killed" Akiri finally noticed Mitsuo staring daggers into her back and visibly gulped.

"Wait, you've fought Shadows before?"

…

…

Dead silence.

"You moron! Why do you think our sempai had no issue sending us up there alone?" Yutono effectively shattered said silence.

"We never openly stated it, so that's my mistake for forgetting to mention it" Mitsuo spoke before looking over at Minako. Getting a nod from her was permission enough, "By her own count, Aristato-san here has been fighting Shadows for around three years. So while she might be new to fighting on a team, in terms of solo experience, she's on par with Akiri here; or maybe even _her_"

Minako chuckled slightly as she heard Mitsuo mumble the last of her statement.

_Oh, I know who they're talking about. That makes some things make more sense._

**Who would have thought our favorite allergic-to-smiling friend was, at least, affiliated with SEES.**

"You flatter me too much sempai"

Hamono heard the sound of glass shattering as time stopped and the Fool Tarot card floated in front of him, notifying him of the increase.

**Yay Mister! We're getting closer to your friends!**

He had to suppress a laugh at how energetic his new Persona, Pixie, was being. He didn't get a chance to use her, since he got her right after they finished off the last group of Shadows. He'd have to talk with Igor about how this whole multiple Persona thing actually worked.

"So what kind of training do you do to get that kind of stamina?"

Minako chuckled as Akiri questioned her, completely ignoring Mitsuo's anger in favor of curiosity, "I find that not talking saves me a good bit of energy to use"

* * *

**A/N: So, originally my plan for this chapter was to have it encompass what's above and then go on until the 25th.**

**Then I noticed that this chapter was already over 4k words and I figured that I could cut it short where I did. So, for the next chapter, expect some social linking, guardian battles, and Reaper fight?**

**And now for something that I completely forgot to do when it actually made sense to do:**

**Explaining Abnormals!**

**Alright, so for now, I'll be referring to the non-cannon 'Shadows' that will be showing up in this fic (example A: the Hydra during the Magician Full Moon) as Abnormals. If anyone has any better idea for a name to 'class' these guy, please PM or leave a review. If I get a better name for them then the one I have, that name will be used in this fic. Now, SEES won't be classifying these Shadows until the Emperor/Empress Full Moon, so you all have some time think of any ideas.**

**So without further to do, this was/is my thought process behind the hydra that Minako fought during the First Full Moon.**

**First and foremost, the hydra was of the Magician Arcana; which is "known" for its fire-oriented Persona. It also represents action, immaturity, etc. So for the hydra, the two heads that breathed fire were obviously a nod to the Arcana's orientation, the two heads that physically attacks as a nod to the action part of it, and the last head that did nothing until the very last part of the fight was a nod to the "fatal flaw" of the Magician, which is arrogance. For the spike-shooter head, I'll be completely honest in saying that that was put in so that the hydra was able to do something. Minako's got a complete immunity to fire (doesn't completely extend to her clothes, though, so getting bathed in flames would still do _something_) and has both the speed and reaction time to dodge the physical attacking heads. So I thought of the idea of a spike-shooting head. It worked out pretty well considering that it not only made the Minako vs hydra fight not look like a curb stop, but also started the running joke of Minako not caring about being injured.**

**Let me know if you guys want to see these kinds of "explanations" after every "Abnormal" appearance.**

**Oh, and if anyone reading this is worried that Minako is just flat-out being overpowered, I've left several hints already about a "fatal flaw" that Minako has. It'll be more clear in the next chapter, but its not impossible to guess what the problem is going to be with what's already out.**


	10. Chapter 10: April 22 to April 24

**A/N: This chapter is massive. Coming in at around 8,700 words, this is by far the longest chapter to date. So, within, we've got the beginnings of the social links and all three Guardian Battles. I looked back at the Minako vs Hydra fight and noticed that it was only about a paragraph long. So, that's not happening again. The fight scenes (and the small bits that connect them) are about 5,000 of the 8,700 words so if you like action, this here's your fix.**

**Reviews:**

**Lady Glitchy: Welcome back! You had midterms after winter break? Ouch.. I might have been sick for my midterms last semester, but at least I had a month off for break without having to worry about tests afterwards. Anyways, you might have noticed that I went ahead with combining (old) chapters 1-3 so if you just read chapter 9, then chapters 7, 8, and 10 are all new.**

**rebfan90: Glad to hear that you're enjoying it.**

**sociallinksora: Now I already responded to the last review you left, but I just want to thank you again for taking the time to read, and review, that old RWBY fic I've got lying around on my account. I appreciate the criticism and, if it's not too much to ask for, would you mind doing something similar to the other P3 fic I've got (Persona 3: Apocalypse). I'm planning on starting chapter 2 for it sometime soon and I could use any kind of critique I can get for it.**

* * *

4/22 _Iwatodai Dorm_ (Early Morning)

* * *

After last night's Tartarus exploration, Minako had a feeling that something like this would happen. She'd been through it herself when she was first adapting to fighting during that time. So she'd gotten up early this morning to make herself, and anyone who managed to get up early enough, breakfast and to see if her prediction came true.

A few minutes after a barely coherent Yutono sat down at the table – slowly waking up after his third cup of coffee – a very disheveled and zombie-like Hamono shambled down the stairs and took a seat at the table. Minako kept herself from laughing as she snuck a photo of her twin before getting his attention.

"I can hear the fangirls squealing now" She dished out some more food onto a plate before sliding it in front of her brother, "Should I start selling tickets to see you like this?"

"Mina, don't you dare…" Hamono glared at his sister; or attempted to. He gave up after a few seconds of staring at the slight smirk on her face and the not-so-slight amount of amusement in her eyes.

Yutono, now fully awake, smiled at the banter between the twins.

"How are _you_ not feeling like crap right now, Mina?"

Minako sat back down and resumed eating her breakfast, raising a brow at her brother's ridiculous question.

"Oh, right, you went and turned yourself into a manga protagonist when I wasn't looking"

She responded by swiping Hamono's entire plate from in front of him and holding it tauntingly out above her head, still eating her own breakfast with one hand.

"Mina…" Hamono, despite still looking like he just rolled out of bed, managed to get a slightly dangerous look in his eyes.

_Gekkoukan High_ (After School)

After a fun morning breakfast that ended with Hamono eating the dorm's carpet – and Minako eating the rest of her breakfast from her seat on her twin's back – the junior members of SEES struggled through the school day, with the twins being the only ones to manage not to fall asleep at some point.

So here were Minako, Hamono, and Jackie walking out the front doors of the school to catch a movie; Yutono had to run off to help out with the archery class. The sun was out, the wind was nice, and the three were in high spirits. Even Minako had a small smile on her face!

Only for one sound to wipe it right off…

"Aieeeeeee!"

… fangirl screams.

"Akiri-sama! Please wait!" "Can I have your autograph?" "MARRY ME!"

"Check out Akiri-sempai's fan club" Jackie pulled Hamono's attention over to the small crowd of students – a good mix of both girls and less-vocal guys – that were rushing their very disgruntled sempai, "How do you think she does it? Hell, you don't see things like this on tv!"

Hamono had to choke back his laughter. His life was definitely turning out to be more entertaining than any tv show could ever possibly be. Exploring _the_ Greek hell at midnight, finding out his sister was a manga character, the Velvet Room. One couldn't possible write this up!

...

"I never had a reason to get to know her before… but I guess I do now. Hehehhe" Minako visibly shuffled away from the salivating Jackie.

…

…

Could you?

"Hey you three!" Hamono was spurred out of his musing by the sight of Akiri running up to him, "Are you all doing anything today?"

"Well we-" "Nope! We're free! Whatcha got planned?" Hamono frowned at Jackie cutting him off

"Good; meet me… at the police station in Paulownia Mall" Akiri moved closer and whispered the last of her statement. Her 'fans' were beginning to get braver despite Minako's scowling at them.

"Wait! We're not gonna hangout with your friends?"

"Friends?" Akiri looked back at the three with a confused look on her face, "Oh, you mean _these_ morons? I don't know who they are. They just run around, screaming and stalking me. I can feel the headache coming on already. Just met me there soon, alright?"

Minako silently approved of Akiri's assessment of her 'fans'. She was glad that she wasn't the only one to find a problem with a group of students stalking her. Akiri snuck one look at the group behind her, noticed them foaming at the mouth, and promptly sprinted through the school gates.

"Aww… Why can't she be more friendly?" "But when she's like that, she looks like fem!Sephiroth from my fanfiction. GO CLOUDXSEPHIROTH!" "COME BACK MY WAIFU!"

_Thanatos, remind me to pray for Akiri-sempai's poor, poor soul_

**Noted, Mistress**

* * *

_Paulownia Mall_

* * *

"Ah, these are the three I was telling you about"

The trio had finally made it to the police station conveniently located on the first floor of Paulownia Mall, only to enter and find Akiri casually speaking to a rather intimidating officer.

"You guys, I'd like to introduce Officer Kurosawa. He's in charge of keeping our squad equipped. So here…" Akiri proceeded to give the three juniors 5,000 yen each, "This is from Ikutsuki. Kurosawa here has connections, but these things still cost money"

"Of course" the officer spoke up for the first time, his low voice commanding the attention of all present, "nothing in life is free"

"I know that" Akiri looked slightly _off_ to Minako's view after saying that, "Anyways, I need to head back to the dorm. See you all there" Akiri visibly looked out the corners of the police office's windows, before throwing the door open and running out of the mall.

Someone _is on a short leash_

**Hmmm… Do you think your friend there calls that 'Kirijo-sempai' Master?**

_Thanatos, I do not need my internal monologues to take a right down _that _street_.

"I'm just an ordinary police officer; but it doesn't take a genius to tell something strange has been happening lately" Minako was thankful for Kurosawa capturing her attention again, "I'm only doing what I think is right"

"And you think arming a bunch of teenagers with live weapons is a good idea…" Hamono couldn't help himself from pointing out the 400-pound elephant in the room.

"Don't think me helping you gives you immunity from the law" Kurosawa stared down the teenager he was told was the squad's new field leader, "The Kirijo Group might have influence around here, but if you get caught beating down civvies, you'll be arrested"

"Right…"

…

"Soo… Illegally arming teenagers… When's that supposed to happen?" Jackie managed to break the awkward silence.

"We've got some things for cheap in the confiscation room; I've also got a catalog you can order some more expensive items from. I've been told not to sell you three guns, however. I heard that having more than one kind of pistol could end _badly _for your squad"

A collective wince went throughout the juniors before they moved further into the police station.

As Hamono and Jackie dug around in the 'confiscated goods' section of the station, Minako picked up the catalog and started browsing.

"Looking for something?" Minako raised her gaze to the questioning officer, "We should still have some weapons in the lock up if you can't find one"

"Not looking for a weapon" She briefly responded before continuing to flip through the catalog.

"Armor then?"

"Kind of…" Minako reached the end of the catalog before closing it with a sigh, "You wouldn't happen to do special orders, would you?"

"Depends, what's wrong with the armors we've got here?"

"Well…" Minako trailed off while thinking of a way to explain her issue, "Putting something _under_ my clothes wouldn't have saved them from being singed beyond repair by that hydra last week or so…"

Kurosawa roughly grabbed the bluenette, "There was a _hydra_ in the city!?"

"_Was _a hydra; key point"

Hamono poked his head out from the room he'd be scrounging, "Mina, how many times is it going to take for you to realize that people aren't going to take you casually mentioning that you killed a hydra well?"

"What? It's not like I killed it with a shovel; I used a sword"

…

"How would using a shovel as a weapon work?"

Minako shrugged, "Maybe if it was a zombie hydra?"

…

"Nevermind that" Kurosawa attempted to bring the conversation back to what actually happened, "Still, a hydra attacked? I guess that explains some of the scorch marks I heard reports of over at Iwatodai. How terrifying…"

"It wasn't _that_ bad… If it was a zombie hydra-dragon-bear, then that'd be terrifying"

…

After the three left, with Minako being the only one to spend her entire 5,000 yen on the down payment of her order, Jackie took off; clearly heading to the arcade to blow the money she'd received.

The twins left Paulownia mall, heading over to the movie theater at Port Island Station. After the film, which for some reason made the two of them feel smarter, they made their way over to the monorail station.

"Why did we watch that film again?" Minako swiped her student pass and passed through the turnstile. She didn't mind watching the movie that they saw, but she didn't really think that watching an educational documentary was necessary.

"That film was a must-watch!" Hamono followed his twin through the turnstiles with a much larger amount of gusto, waving around a pamphlet of some sorts, "It was in this article called, 'See and do EVERYTHING! Making the most out of your year in Tatsumi Port Island!'"

* * *

4/23 _Hagakure_ (After School)

* * *

It had been another uneventful day for the twins. Right up until the moment that Jackie and another classmate, one Kenji Tomochika, dragged them out of Gekkoukan and to a small ramen shop. They waited in line for a few minutes but managed to all get seats at the counter.

"Yo, we'll have four specials!" Jackie wasted no time ordering food for the four of them.

Hamono pouted slightly, "That's not too expensive, is it? Why do I have to pay for your food anyways?"

Jackie stuck her tongue at the brunette, "You and Yuticchi were mocking me the first day you got here! So just pay for my meal and I'll call it even"

The two continued their banter as Kenji spoke to Minako, "So, Minako-san, I heard that you and Yutono-kun are pretty close. Good for you! It's about time that guy finally got himself a girlfriend"

Thankfully for Kenji's sake, their orders of ramen arriving cut off the retort Minako was about to give. Her annoyance disappeared after a loud grumbling caught their attention.

"What? I didn't eat lunch" Hamono looked surprisingly flustered at the amount of attention he was getting, ending it when he started to shovel the ramen into his mouth, "It's really good!"

Minako could help herself from agreeing with her twin after getting a bite of the noodles.

Kenji slurped down a long chain of noodles before speaking, "Isn't this place just the best? They've just got that extra something that other shops don't have. It's probably some kind of secret spice"

Minako stared at him before very visibly shoving a bunch of her ramen into her mouth. Jackie laughed at the exchange, "She's got a point there Kenji, you gotta just shuttup and eat your food"

"Sorry about that" Kenji scratched the back of his head, "I just get all geeked up when I eat here"

"That's for damn sure" Jackie managed to get another laugh in before he turned to Hamono in a more subdued tone, "Hey, Hamicchi, you feeling back up to snuff after that hospital visit? You were out for a week"

Hamono nodded before swallowing the mouthful of ramen he had, "Yeah, I'm feeling fine now; thanks for asking. Is that why you forced me into buying you food?"

"Meh, that's only part of the reason. I just wanted to check up on how my fellow transfer students were adjusting"

Hamono smiled at Jackie. Time froze and that familiar sound of glass shattering filled his mind.

**Thou art I… and I am Thou…**

**Thou shalt be blessed when thou reaches out for the power of Personae of the Magician Arcana.**

Hamono relaxed as he felt the warm sensation flow into his chest…

"We've gotta meet up again! Then I'll tell you about my 'secret plan'"

Only to tense up as he went into big-brother mode, "We'll _all _meet up again, okay?"

Minako rolled her eyes at her twin's sudden reaction; Kenji appeared to have a heart attack.

"Down, Hamicchi. Kenji here isn't interested in girls like your sister anyways"

* * *

_Iwatodai Dorm_ (Evening)

* * *

"We're back~"

Hamono lead the charge on the way back from Hagakure, cheerfully throwing open the dorm's front doors as he walked in. He quickly signed himself in before throwing himself onto one of the lounge's easy chairs. Minako snorted after watching her twin's antics, calmly signing in before taking a seat at the dining table next to Yutono.

"Aristato-kun" Hamono's attention went from the phone in his hand to his sempai, "Have you been monitoring your condition? Exploring Tartarus can be exhausting, so make sure to not overexert yourself"

"You can join the worry train with Jackie-chan, Mitsuo-sempai. I'm feeling fine right now, but I was thinking of going to Tartarus tomorrow night. Let's all try to have an early night tonight"

Hamono then grabbed his bag and joined his twin and Yutono in doing their homework at the dining table.

* * *

4/24 _Gekkoukan High School _(Before School)

* * *

"So are you planning on joining any of the sports teams?" Hamono looked at his twin, the question coming from a pair of passing-by students that mentioned the sports teams were accepting applicants.

Minako nodded before responding, "They've got a track and field team, so I was thinking of going for long-distance"

"Hmm… track team, eh?" Hamono mulled it over briefly, "They have a sprinting block?"

"Probably"

* * *

_Gekkoukan High School _(After School)

* * *

After another uneventful day of classes, Hamono immediately grabbed his twin and walked them to the outdoor track, where a group of students were already mulling about.

"Are you two interesting in joining track and field?" A dark-skinned girl in a track suit approached the twins.

"That's right!" Hamono enthusiastically responded while Minako settled for a nod.

"Good to hear, I'm Yuko Nishiwaki. And you two must be the transfer students in 2-F right?"

"Whatever you've heard, it's not true" Hamono responded jokingly.

"Even the good?"

"Especially the good"

The two shared a laugh while a man in a green track suit approached them, "Hey, Yuko, are these fresh recruits?"

"That they are"

"Well, welcome to the track team! We've mostly split the team between our long-distance runners and our sprinters. You're free to switch between the two during the practices, but try to be somewhat consistent"

The twins split off into their desired groups so while Minako walked with Yuko and the coach over to where most of the guys were gather, Hamono walked by himself over to where most of the girls were.

"Alright, listen up boys!" Most of the guys gathered quieted down, "We've got a new member joining us today, Minako Aristato of 2-F"

Minako sighed slightly after noticing the not-so-subtle whispers amongst the guys on the team, "It's nice to meet you all"

"Hey Kazushi!" The coach called over for a somewhat tall, but lanky dark-haired guy who ran up enthusiastically.

"Yessir!" Minako raised an eyebrow at the absolute lack of sarcasm in his voice.

_He's serious_.

"This man here is the future captain of our team. He's done well in a few competitions since he joined. You two are in the same class, right? So Kazushi, do me a favor and look out for her, okay?"

"Got it"

**And now he's your mentor.**

_Joy._

"Hey, you're the girl that beat the Takeba challenge on the first day of school, right? Good for you! It's about time that guy loosened up a bit. You're pretty well-known among the second years. I'm Kazushi Miyamoto, and to put it bluntly, you're mine after school. Don't think I'll go easy on you 'cause you're a girl"

_This is getting a bit ridiculous_.

**Just be thankful that rumors don't come true here**.

"I'll try to keep up" Minako managed to keep her face stoic the entire time.

…

…

While his twin was dealing with the team's jocks, Hamono approached a teacher that appeared to be in charge of the sprinters. Upon noticing him approaching, the teacher motioned him over.

"Attention everyone, you all have a new teammate"

"I'm Hamono Aristato from class 2-F; it's nice to meet you all" Hamono said with a slight bow and smile.

"It's nice to meet you, too!" Hamono grinned at the enthusiastic response from the group.

"Let's see here" the teacher appeared to be fumbling with something, "Who's the leader for the juniors again?"

"That would be me" A girl with dark hair pulled into a pony tail not unlike the one that Minako would sport from time to time walked over.

"Oh, that's good. I need to leave to handle some paper work. I'm not sure what I'd be doing here anyways" Hamono managed to not wince when the teacher giggled slightly before walking off.

"… Alright" He could tell the junior wasn't happy about it either.

After the teacher walked off the field, Hamono could hear the group in front of him mocking her to which he really couldn't blame them"

**I've heard the lame make more pleasant noises than that woman.**

_Agreed_.

"She doesn't exactly pull her weight, does she?" Hamono motioned towards the long-gone teacher.

"Not really…" The girl scowled slightly before speaking again, "Anyways, I'm Rio Iwasaki. You're Hamono-san, right? I've heard a bit about you. I'm in charge of the junior sprinters, so let me know if you need anything"

"Alright, I'll do my best!" Hamono smiled at Rio.

"For today, we'll be going over the basics. Just try your best"

"Got it"

Time froze again and the same sound of glass shattering filled Hamono's mind.

**Thou art I… and I am thou.**

**Thou shall be blessed when thou strives for Personae of the Chariot Arcana.**

The warm feeling that collected into Hamono's chest remained even after ten excruciating sets of sprints.

* * *

_Tartarus_ (Dark Hour)

* * *

After the members of SEES arrived at the lobby of Tartarus, Hamono told everyone to double check their equipment again while he made a quick run to the Velvet Room.

"Welcome back, my dear young man" Igor, in all his sinister grinning glory greeted Hamono upon entering, "It is time for me to discuss with you my true role in this room-"

"**Master!"**

Igor was cut off and Hamono looked behind him to see what it was that just ran into the back of his head. It was Pixie, floating in front of him. Hamono's eyes widened when he noticed how small Pixie was.

"You're the size of my hand…"

"**Now, now Pixie" **Orpheus rose from his seat and began to walk over to the two, **"Master here is discussing business; we shouldn't interfere. Please re-take your seat"**

Hamono couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the fact that Pixie did have a small seat, floating in the air, for her to sit on.

Pixie simply pouted at Orpheus before flying up and sitting on Hamono's hair, **"I don't wanna sit on that hard chair. _This _is much better"** She giggled slightly before squirming around to get a better seat in Hamono's hair.

"**Pixie-" **"It's fine, Orpheus" Hamono cut off his more stingy Persona, "She can sit there if she wants, just keep it down, alright?"

Pixie hummed in agreement and Igor's chuckling brought Hamono's attention back to him.

"Like I was saying before, my true role in the Velvet Room is the Fusing of new Persona from old Personae. Remember how you received Pixie? You can receive other Persona through those cards; however some Persona will only be obtainable through Fusion. There are benefits to picking the other cards that may appear before, so please keep that in mind"

"Right" Hamono nodded in response, "I'll see you again when I have more Personae"

After leaving the Velvet Room, Hamono motion for everyone to group up before ascending into Tartarus.

* * *

_Tartarus Floor 5_

* * *

Things had been going rather well for the juniors in their exploration of Tartarus. Upon arriving at the 5th floor, they'd stumbled across a teleporter that allowed them to freely travel to the lobby and back. After a quick breather, Hamono had lead the assault team further down the single, empty hallway that was on said floor. Again, things _had_been going well.

"Well, shit" Jackie summed things up rather well, Hamono mused. They'd been walking down the hallway when a wall rose up from the floor behind them, cutting off their retreat route. The walls gave a loud groan and the hallway shook as the walls began to shift and adjust, turning the narrow path into a rather large, open room with a few walls remaining in the middle and a few inverted columns hanging from the ceiling.

"_What's going on up there? I detected a disturbance with the floor you are on. Are you all alright?"_

"We're fine, but cut off. The whole floor changed layouts on us" Hamono grimly reported back.

"_Keep your wits about you. I'm detecting three strong Shadows in your proximity!"_

As Mitsuo reported, three bird-like shadows arose from the few walls that remained in the middle of the large room. They circled in place briefly, before one of them spotted the juniors.

"SCATTER!" Hamono screamed out his order as the three Venus Eagles dive-bombed towards the team. They managed to scrabble out of the way and Minako got off a quick slash to one as it flew by.

"Tch, that didn't do anything…" The Shadow should have been missing a wing when it didn't appear to be affected at all.

The four members of SEES split up throughout the room, hoping to decrease the effective-ness of another fly-bye.

"Come on! Hermes!" Jackie drew her Evoker, hoping to blast one of the Shadows out of the air. Before she could pull the trigger, one of the other Eagles turned and knocked her off her feet with a Garu.

"Jackie-chan!" Hamono gripped his scimitar and he rushed over to cover for the fallen girl, "You alright?" He drew his Evoker and along with Orpheus, swatted an attacking Eagle out of the air. It rolled a short distance to the side but quickly righted itself and jumped back into the air.

"Be more careful" Jackie was pulled to her feet before she dusted herself off and adjusted her grip on her two-handed katana.

On the other side of the room, Minako was keeping the other two Eagles from too close while Yutono attempted to shoot them out of the air. Growling as another one of her cuts simply slid off the mask of the Shadow, she balled her fist and delivered a vicious back-hand; following it up with a heel kick while it was stunned.

The two fighting groups fell back and regrouped.

"Yutono, do you think you can land a shot on those Shadows? I just had Mitsuo-sempai do a scan on them and that seems to be their weakness"

"I can try, but they're moving too fast for me to get a clean shot off"

"Right. Mina, you're out front. I know you can't do anything to them, but you're the fastest out of all of us, so you're the distraction. Jackie-chan, stay back. You haven't fully recovered from that Garu attack, but we might need you if things go south. Yutono, aim for the target that I'll 'mark'"

A roar from the approaching Eagles cut off any more planning.

"What do you mean by 'mark'!?"

"You'll see!" Hamono barely managed to get moving before his twin rushed out in front, drawing her sword again as the three Eagles closed in on her.

Yutono ran over to the side, panting from the stress of the situation. He drew his bow, but couldn't keep it steady from how badly his hand was shaking. He grimaced while berating himself.

_Not again. They're counting on you. You HAVE to do this._

Despite his attempts, Yutono couldn't get a steady bead on any of the Eagles swarming Minako.

**Summon me, child. I shall aid you**

Yutono nearly jumped out of his skin after hearing the voice of his Persona in his head. Shoving down swelling feelings from hearing his mother's voice again, Yutono drew his Evoker.

"This'd better work!" He nearly screamed out as he shoved the pistol against his temple and pulled the trigger for the first time since the rooftop with Minako.

Io once again formed above Yutono, but instead of casting a spell, the Persona fell into place behind him. Drawing his bow once again, the shaking in his hands was completely gone and he easily drew a bead on the Eagles.

"Nice! This will be the first target!" Hamono drew his own Evoker again and put it to the side of his head with a grin, "You're up Pixie! Rakunda!"

Pixie emerged from Hamono's consciousness, bringing a ball of blue light together onto one of the Shadows as they continued their attempted assault on Minako.

"_What? How do you have another Persona?"_

"Not now Sempai! Yutono, fire!"

Focusing back on the weakened Eagle, Yutono could feel some of his power flowing through his bow arm, a small whirlwind forming at the end of the drawn arrow.

**There. Now fire, my child**

Aiming for the weakened Eagle as it swung around to make another pass at Minako, Yutono let loose the arrow. It shot out of the bow and, as it passed through the whirlwind, spun and accelerated. The Shadow never saw the arrow coming as it punched straight through its weakened mask, creating a hole the size of a fist straight through its head; the arrow continuing its flight before exploding on contact with the wall on the far side of the room. The Shadow's body didn't last long enough to hit the ground, completely evaporating midair.

The two remaining Venus Eagles, reacting to new and much more real threat than the dark-haired swordswoman they'd been unsuccessfully trading blows with, rose back into the air and after letting out another battle cry, they descended at the archer.

Yutono didn't even react to Hamono rushed command to fall back, his entire world narrowed down to the small area in front of his drawn arrow. He let loose another arrow, becoming a brown-shaded blur as it rushed through the still-present whirlwind. This time, the targeted Eagle saw the attack coming and instead of losing its head, the arrow imbedded itself into its wing, causing it to tumble out of the air and into the company of Jackie with Evoker drawn.

Seeing that Yutono didn't have enough time to drawn another arrow, Hamono screamed out to his twin as he drew his Evoker, "COLLAPSE ON YUTONO!" Orpheus materialized in front of the Eagle and the two clashed, lyre against claw. He grit his teeth as he saw his Persona being slowly overpowered, failing to notice Minako had long-since rushed over towards them as she ran up the side of one of the room's walls. Placing the grip of her sword in her mouth and biting down on it, Minako threw herself off the wall before bouncing off a few of the stalactite-like columns, she pushed off one directly above the last flying Eagle. Tackling the Shadow right out of the air, the two slammed into the ground with Minako managing to keep her position on top. Retrieving the sword from her mouth, Minako couldn't help a sickly smile from spreading onto her face as her sword finally pierced straight through the Eagle's mask before it dissolved under her.

"Dun Dun Duh DUH! I just leveled up!" Jackie shouted out enthusiastically before raising her still ichor-stained sword into the air. Hamono smiled at the sight as the tension from the fight drained out of the team.

"_Nice job, everyone. I'm not sensing anymore Shadows on that flo-"_

Mitsuo was cut off as the floor began to shake again, Hamono gritting his teeth as it happened, "Don't speak so soon, sempai" This time, however, the center of the room opened up and a stairway arose up to the next floor. Alongside of Hamono, two silver briefcases fell from the ceiling. He picked up the items within along with two masks from the Eagles that weren't destroyed and placed them within the satchel he'd been given.

"_Now that you are all safe, Aristato-kun, do you mind explaining why you have a second Persona?"_

Hamono scratched the back of his head awkwardly, "I just kinda do?"

"_I hope you know that the idea of a person wielding multiple Personae is completely unheard of"_

Minako tapped the side of her head, "Is it really? And why are you acting like you've never seen this before? Hamo might not have done it willingly, but he didn't kill that Shadow back on the rooftop with Orpheus"

"Did he really?" Yutono had slid his bow back over his shoulder, "My memory is a little hazy, but all I remember is Hamono's Persona glowing really brightly, not changing"

"I don't blame you for not noticing, the only reason I guessed why was because it had a different way of attacking"

**Eurydice is correct; I cannot claim credit for that kill**

Hamono was thankfully saved from responding by Mitsuo, _"Unfortunately, the rooftop cameras were briefly blinded by the power behind Aristato-kun's summoning so we were unable to salvage any footage of the actual battle. I don't see any problems with your actions, but there are certain _implications_ behind having a second Persona. If you feel like you are having any problems please tell me immediately"_

"I understand, sempai" Hamono let out a breath at being spared having to explain the Velvet Room to the others, "Now, let's get moving"

* * *

_Tartarus Floor 10_

* * *

"This again?" Hamono pointed out after noticing another teleporter resembling the one located in Tartarus' main lobby.

"_If this is anything like that previous floor, you can expect to run into another group of dangerous Shadows. Please, be on your guard"_

"Right, sempai. Everyone, watch your backs" Hamono instructed the rest of the team before walking over and activating the teleporter. The group of four continued down the hallway and was only half-surprised when a wall blocked off the way back again.

"Alright, get ready" Hamono unsheathed his scimitar again, slowly making his way down the hallway before it began to shake.

This time, the room opened up with a scattering of walls spread out like a maze with the majority of the walls missing. Occasionally, one of the tiles of the floor was raised up, creating small platforms.

"_Incoming!"_

Reacting to the flicker of movement in the corner of her vision, Minako struck out with her elbow and caught a pink-ish Shadow mid-strike. The Shadow slid back before slinking off and joining up with two more identical Shadows.

"Mitsuo-sempai, scan them. Jackie-chan and Yutono, blast them with me!" The three drew their Evokers and pulled them almost at the same time.

"Hermes, Agi!" "Io, Garu!" "Apsaras, Bufu!"

Their Personae arose from their consciousness before launching aforementioned elemental attack at the group of Shadows. The room shook slightly from the force of three attacks landing and smoke billowed out from the impact site. Minako strained her eyes to see through the obstruction, only to widen her eyes at what she saw.

Not wasting time speaking, Minako roughly grabbed Yutono and Jackie by their collars and threw them to the ground behind her. Running up to her twin, she shoved Hamono down before jumping in front of the entire group.

To take a massive ball of energy containing fire, ice, and electricity for the team. Hamono covered his head and grit his teeth as he rode out the waves of force that were slamming him into the ground. As the force finally ended, he looked up to see his twin surrounded by rapidly fading black aura, a small amount of ice on her shoulder and the occasional trickle of lightning flowing around her body being the only signs that she took the attack.

"_They're Dancing Hands. They're strong against all the elements and physical attacks but they are weak to strike attacks! Also, they don't appear to be that powerful individually, but it seems that they can combine their attacks into much more powerful forms!"_

Minako silently pulled her twin off the ground before reaching over and pulling Yutono up as well. Hamono aided Jackie who looked a little ruffled at the rough handling. Turning back to Hands, Hamono gave his orders over his shoulder while sheathing his scimitar, "Jackie-chan and Yutono, stay back and support me and Mina. Mina, we're taking the three of them on ourselves"

"Give me a minute" Minako responded before unbuttoning and throwing off her outer blazer, rolling the sleeves of her dress shirt up. She unclipped her Evoker belt and, along with her sword, let it fall to the floor.

_Thanatos, focus everything we've got into my muscles and bones._

**Drag-out brawl?**

_You got it_.

"Orpheus, Bash!" Hamono's Persona dealt the first significant blow of the fight, his lyre smashing down onto the lead Hand; said Hand having difficulty immediately getting up after the hit. The two remaining Hands snapped their fingers and two balls of fire and ice formed overhead before being smashed together. A much smaller, but still as potent, ball of thermal lightning formed before the Shadows launched it at Orpheus. It exploded a short distance away from Hamono, his twin sliding a short distance of to the side as the same black aura enveloped her forearms in an attempt to heal the damage done by the attack.

"Hermes!" Jackie summoned her Persona and it surrounded Minako in a blue aura, slightly raising her defense.

Minako silently thanked her teammate as she rushed forward to meet the Shadows head on. The lead Hand flung itself at her, an attempt at a glorified slap that she simply ducked under and ignored, a small smile spreading onto her face as she heard Orpheus smash it into the floor. She jumped the remaining distance to the Hands and punched one away before rolling with her momentum under the other's counter attack. Grabbing the Shadow as it passed over her, she threw the Hand into a nearby wall before crushing it into the floor with an overhead axe kick as it bounced back at her.

Hamono let out a grunt of pain as Orpheus shattered from a head-on Zio. He felt his pain ebb as Yutono fixed him up, but the Hand was still standing.

**I don't have the strength to be summoned right now. I apologize.**

Hamono grit his teeth again at this news. _I don't have another Persona with a strike attack. And I don't have the fighting prowess that Mina has._

**I may have the answer. I've been studying Eurydice's style for some time now and I think I know how it works. Simply put, instead of channeling your strength through us to attack, channel our strength through yourself.**

_What?_

**It's a risk and I can't guaranty that there won't be any recoil from doing this with how weak I am, but it's our only shot at this.**

Hamono carefully watched the Hand as it appeared to be getting restless. _What do I need to do?_

**I believe that attempting to use one of our attacks without using summoning us may give desired results.**

Hamono ran forward, ducking under a Bufu spell, before punching the Hand with an overhand right. It recoiled slightly as he brought his left hand around for a hook. Hamono felt Orpheus stir within his consciousness as the hit connected.

This time, the Hand was knocked back into a nearby wall where it splattered and disintegrated. Hamono looked down at his hand only to nearly shout in shock. His entire left hand, and most of his forearm, was seemingly replaced by Orpheus' own. It held shortly before shattering and dissolving into the blue shards of glass that accompanied Persona summoning.

"Nice trick you have there, Hamo" Minako stated with a raised eyebrow. She'd finished off her two opponents in time to witness her twin's attack.

"I'm just glad it worked" Hamono replied while shaking his head.

* * *

_Tartarus Floor 14_

* * *

"Watch out!"

Minako just barely managed to grab Yutono from the pillar they were hiding behind before the massive Shadow they were fighting demolished it. This 'Guardian', as Mitsuo had decided to call the strong Shadows they faced on these floors, had started out simply enough. The floor had opened up into a large room with evenly spaced pillars, which the Guardian at first had been content enough to maneuver around. However, after Hamono landed a particularly strong Zio attack with a new persona of his, Omoikane, the Shadow had wrapped itself in a red aura and began to charge straight through anything in its way. Jackie had been the first casualty of the raging Assault Drive, its attack smashing straight through Hermes before swatting her like a fly. Hamono worked with a Revival Bead and Pixie to aid Jackie, but it seemed that she'd taken a much larger beating than first anticipated. So while Hamono hid in the shadows until Jackie managed to fully recover from her head injury, Minako and Yutono were left with the extremely dangerous task of distracting such an aggressive Shadow for an extended duration of time.

Minako dove behind another pillar as the Assault Drive annihilated the one she was just hiding behind, "Shit…" Things were beyond bad: she herself couldn't actually damage this Shadow on her own and if Yutono stopped for long enough to launch a Garu he'd simply eat a Mazio for his trouble.

"Minako!" Yutono grabbed her attention and motioned her over to the pillar he was hiding behind, "What are we going to do against this Shadow?"

Minako was carefully watching their opponent to know when the next charge would be but she could hear the fear in his voice. She managed to keep the fear out of her own, somehow, "Not a clue… Sempai, what's the status on Jackie-san?"

"_Iori-san is almost fully recovered"_

"Right,…" Minako ran a hand through her hair while mulling over what to do next, "Yutono, head back over to Hamo and Jackie-san. If you can speed up her recovery, do it. We need Hamo to kill this thing"

"And exactly what are you going to be doing?"

"… What I do best…" Minako darted out of cover and drew the Assault Drive's attention from the direction Yutono needed to go.

_Surviving_

Dismissing her sword, Minako pulled herself up the pillar she stopped next to and came face to face with the massive Shadow.

"Well! Come on now!" Minako roar at it, and it responded by slowly being its spinning charge. Taking a deep breath, Minako jumped from the pillar onto one of the spinning spears the Shadow had for arms. Gripping the spear as tightly as she could with one hand as she called back her sword, Minako was struck with sudden inspiration. Drawing her arm back, she threw the sword as straight as she could into the spinning gears that were connected to the Drive's many legs.

Unfortunately for her, the sword wedge itself snuggly in between two gears bringing the Shadow to a sudden stop. Ripped from the Shadow by the near-absolute stop in acceleration, Minako flew through the air. Righting herself in time to flip off a passing pillar, Minako landed in a crouch on another pillar.

The Shadow enveloped itself in another layer of red aura and she could feel the connection to her sword shatter as the Assault Drive grinded it to dust. A flick of the wrist was all it took to bring it back into her hand.

The next charge was interrupted by a lance of lightning piercing straight through the Drive. Hamono stood there, Evoker still smoking, with Omoikane floating above him with a grin on his face, "Need a hand?"

Minako joined her twin behind a pillar as the two watched the recovering Shadow, "I need an idea of how to actually kill this Shadow; got one of those?"

"Well…" Hamono looked up and to the left, a sign Minako had come to realize was him talking to his Personae, "According to Omoikane, this guy's got a weak spot on the dead center of his chest. Problem is, our attacks are being diverted around it…"

"… You need a lightning rod, don't you?" Minako sighed while shaking her head, "The shit I do sometimes…"

The twins dove out of the way as the Shadow smashed straight through their cover. Hamono moved to the side as Minako chased the Assault Drive down. As it spun to face them again, Minako jumped onto the Shadow's chest piece and stabbed her sword into it as hard as she could. Minako gritted her teeth as she struggled to keep the sword in place, the Shadow's armor seemingly rejecting it intensely.

She had to keep herself from screaming when her twin's attack channeled itself through her, down her sword, and into the Assault Drive. The Drive seemed to lose control and Minako limply fell off the Shadow. Her vision had patches of white and her ears rang, but she managed to regain her footing. The Drive was staggering around, its gears worn down from the intensity of its own attacks, crashing into a few of the remaining pillars but not going through them like it had.

Gripping her blade tighter, Minako could feel the currents still running through her body and down her sword. Planting her feet, she threw her sword straight at the disabled Drive. It hit dead center and while the sword only harmlessly bounced off of its armor, the charge within the blade finished it off.

* * *

_Tartarus Floor 14?_

* * *

After fully healing Minako, Hamono collected the spoils of their victory and the team made their way over to the staircase; this one appearing behind a wall that slide out of their way. As they climbed the stairs, they began to shift and crack.

"_What's going on up there?"_

"The stairs are shifting! It looks like they're leading us to a different floor" Hamono stated as the stairs opened up to a dark hallway.

"_I'm not sensing any Shadow from that area, but be careful! Try to get to the next floor as fast as you can"_

"Right, sempai" Hamono lead the team into the darkness.

…

…

**Something is off, Mistress.**

_It's less of a matter of is or isn't, and more of a matter of what at this point_.

…

"Hey! Check this out!" Jackie pointed to a small room that branched off from the main hallway. Right in the middle of it was a golden chest. After the second room had yet another golden chest, Hamono ordered the team to split up and quickly loot any chests they could find.

Minako entered another room and yanked open a chest, pocketing the black gem within it.

_Megido huh?... This really is just too strange for something to not be going on._

**Wait… I'm feeling something here…**

"_What is this reading?... Everyone, please regroup and evacuate that floor immediately!"_

"_You heard the man! Regroup"_ Hamono confirmed the order. As Minako went to leave the room, she heard the sound of chains softly rattling in the background.

_What. Was. That._

**If I'm right, we don't want to be anywhere near it.**

Listening to her mentor's advice, Minako took off in a sprint, quickly meeting up with the rest of the team.

"_I sense… Death… Get out of there!"_

The twins and Yutono, silently agreeing to retreat immediately, turned to run.

Jackie had other plans, "Why should we? It can't be worse than that la-"

"**Fool"**

Hamono turned around to grab Jackie, only to get swept off his feet by the hurricane-grade wind that slammed into them. Minako and Yutono could only grip the wall to their side as they watched the two get thrown down the remainder of the hallway before slamming into the wall, sliding to the floor in a heap.

When the winds finally receded, Minako looked up to see exactly what they were dealing with. _IT_ stood tall enough to nearly touch the ceiling, a good ten feet above them, wearing a large black trench coat with two large, long-barreled revolvers in its hands. It peered at them with one large, unblinking eye.

**This is bad, very bad.**

_Shit… We need to get everyone out of here…_

"_What is going on? Anyone? Please respond!"_

Mitsuo's voice coming through her earpiece snapped Minako out of her daze. She felt an uncertain weight on her shoulder and, looking back, came face to face with a terror-stricken Yutono. Minako grimly realized that once again, she was the only one that could fight. Grabbing his hand seemed to break Yutono out his own daze, "Yutono, I need you to grab Hamo and Jackie-san, and then _run_"

"No…" Yutono grabbed her hand with both of his own.

"Yutono, please"

"… No, I c-can't"

"_Please_, Yutono. You need to grab those two and get out of here. I can hold that _thing_ back for a bit, but I can't do that and get you all out of here at the same time" At that, Minako rose to her feet and slowly walked to meet 'Death'

"Minako, no!" Yutono had to choke back a sob, "Damn it…" He ran over to his unconscious friends and tried to rouse them.

"**Hmmm? And what is this?" **'Death' appeared to be genuinely amused by Minako's actions, **"What fool walks towards me? You should be running"**

"I don't plan on running, at the moment" Minako motioned over her shoulder, "I want you to let those three go; they don't pose a shadow of a threat to you right now. Instead," Minako reached into her hair and removed the tie holding it in place, "I'll be fighting you"

"**HAHAHAHhahaha!" **'Death' was visibly shaking from its laughter, **"Is that what you think?" **It leveled one of its revolvers at Minako's head, **"Tell me why I shouldn't just kill where you stand now?"**

"Because you are bored" Yutono froze after hearing her say that. It wasn't what she said as much as how she said it. Minako continued with a shrug, "You run around this tower with nothing better to do, don't you? You could have easily killed us all, but you didn't; and why is that? Because you're bored and don't want to kill off your playmates immediately. But you don't want to go after them; you won't get any satisfaction from killing them. So fight me, I'll give you a challenge"

"**Is that so?"** 'Death' appeared to be legitimately considering the offer, **"But who are you exactly? I can see that you're different from _them_, but that's not really enough to pique my interest"**

"I see…" Minako closed her eyes and smiled ruefully, "I can understand why you wouldn't accept my challenge… **But what about mine?"**

Yutono looked on in shock as he heard Minako's voice completely change. It wasn't just her voice that was different, he noted; her posture was different and the shadow that she cast seemed to twist and flicker on its own.

"**Am I 'piquing' your interest now?"** Minako(?) motioned tauntingly, **"Or need I do more?"**

"**No… you have my interest, and…"** 'Death' motioned towards the wall behind Yutono. It slide open and revealed one of the one-way teleporters that led back down to the lobby, **"… your comrades may leave; provided you stay and fight me"**

"**Naturally…**" Minako(?) turned back to face Yutono. She mouthed '_Go. I will find the stairs' _before turning back to her opponent. Yutono lifted the two unconscious team members before walking over to the teleporter. With one last look, he kicked it and disappeared. The wall slide back into place and the two duelists remained.

"**You may decide when we begin"**

"**What a gentleman" **Minako smirked at her opponent, **"We'll fight when this,"** She dangled her hairband in front of herself, **"hits the ground"**

Holding out the hairband, Minako drew a full breath into her lungs. She held it as she dropped the hairband.

There was silence; then the hairband hit the ground.

Minako rushed forwards as fast as she could while zig-zaging, hoping to throw off 'Death's' aim. It currently had one revolver trained on her, the other hanging limply towards the ground. Minako smirked, it was **underestimating them**, and she would **enjoy toying with him before they escaped**. The first shot rang out and Minako jumped to the other side of the hallway as the spot where she was previously running exploded from the impact of the massive round. She repeated her action for the second and third round, easily halving the distance between the two. Then, it raised its second revolver and Minako drew her sword. She pushed on, even after feeling her sword fracture from deflecting such a large bullet that would have hit her mid-dodge. She blocked another round and **they **knew that the sword would break under the impact of the third. Instead of jumping to the side to dodge the next volley, Minako took to the walls, easily dodging the bullets and launching herself at 'Death'. It shifted to the side as she passed; causing her to rebound off of the wall she landed on. It was obviously not anticipating **them** to make such a maneuver and was only able to watch as **they** grabbed onto its head and plunged the blade into its single eye. Minako forcefully broke the blade off a few inches from the hilt, leaving about half the blade still in its eye. **They **landed with a roll, admiring her handy work, **"You are conceited, Death" They **spoke tauntingly.

It froze momentarily before responding, **"As are you… 'FOOLISH DEATH'! MEGIDOLAON"**. It raised one revolver straight up and fired repeatedly.

The next few minutes became a blur of wild dodging and explosions as balls of bluish light rained down. Minako continually coughed up dust, even long after the explosions stopped. By some small miracle, the walls hiding the stairs were blown away and she wasted no time staggering up them.

* * *

_Tartarus Floor 15_

* * *

Minako fell to one knee as she took in her surroundings. Directly across from her was a large pile of chairs that seemed to be blocking the way up the stairs behind them. Another one of those silver briefcases was placed on the ground to her right while a one-way teleporter sat to her left. She pushed herself back onto her feet before slowly making her way over to the briefcase.

_Thanatos, that is the _last_ time you challenge an enemy._

**I apologize for that. But when you tell me 'Taunt him into fighting us alone', I don't have very many options.**

… _I think I might owe Yutono an apology and an explanation for that one; he's been put in enough terror-inducing situations all too often lately._

"**Hmmm… You _are_ intriguing after all"**

Minako couldn't help but groan, "Oh, come on!"

"**I am not going to fight you, at least for tonight. I will, however, be challenging you, little Death, in the future"**

"Right, right, you wouldn't happen to have a name, would you? Calling us both 'Death' would get a little confusing" Minako attempted to ignore how absurd it was to be talking to seemingly the thin air.

"**I am known as the Reaper. You may call me that"**

"Right, Reaper. Don't mind me; I'm just going to leave now"

Without waiting on a response, Minako grabbed the silver briefcase and practically fell through the portal. Her bed was feeling rather inviting at the moment.

* * *

**A/N: So now we've got the Reaper making his appearance! And FF doesn't seem to always carry over the underlines in his text...**

**So for social links, the 'main story' will be following P3's FeMC's route. I'll be mixing in a fair bit of the MC's events as well for Minako, however Minako will not be benefiting from these in anyway shape or form. If you want to know what events will be happening, I will be posting links to the guides I'm using in the story's description on my profile.**

**Anyways, things are finally moving along. I hope you all enjoyed the fight scenes as next chapter will be pure social links / 'slice of life'y kind of stuff. The chapter after that one will be the long promised Priestess Fight. Please leave a review as they let me know what you want to see in this fic.**


	11. Chapter 11: April 24 to April 25

**A/N: I apologize for how long this chapter has taken to come out. However, I've got midterms eating up my time lately so I figured I should upload SOMETHING just to prove that I'm still around. So I ended up cutting this chapter short as I'm not sure how much time I'm going have to work on this in the coming week. I do have break starting on the 16th, so expect the next chapter to come out sometime around then.**

**Reviews:**

**rebfan90: Thanks for the support. I'm glad you like the Minako vs Reaper fight. The Reaper will be coming back every now and then so expect a bit of a rematch at some point.**

* * *

4/24 _Tartarus_ (Main Lobby)

* * *

She wasn't sure what exactly to expect when she arrived at Tartarus' main lobby via the teleporter from that strange, barricaded off floor. Her twin was probably up and moving again and would probably give her a scolding for what she'd done. Worst case, he'd give her a smack upside the head.

Minako wasn't expecting to arrive at Tartarus' main lobby only to nearly get pulled off her feet by Yutono. He frantically looked her over while maintaining an iron grip on her shoulders.

"Uh, Yutono-kun? I appreciate the sediment, but mind giving me some room to breathe here?" She motioned with the remains of her sword in her left hand for emphasis.

He began to walk away from her but something caught his eye. Minako was somewhat surprised when he didn't hesitate to place his palm against her forehead and his Evoker against his head. Between wiping a small trickle of blood off her forehead and the soothing sensation of a Dia against her head told her she must have gotten hit with debris after the Reaper decided to nuke the entire floor to oblivion.

"Aristato-san, are you alright?" Mitsuo walked purposefully across the lobby, from where he had been aiding Akiri in healing Hamono and Jackie when they initially arrived.

Yutono had finished fixing up her head and so Minako took a moment to quickly check over herself. Aside from being covered in a layer of dust and the bits of rubble in her unruly hair, the cut on her forehead was the worst injury Minako sustained. So with a small shrug of her shoulders, she motioned with the silver briefcase still in her right hand, "I found this on floor 15. Also, I don't think we can go any further up this tower at this time"

Mitsuo raised an eyebrow but accepted the briefcase none the less, "And why might that be?"

"There's a barricade of some sorts in the way" Minako turned and started to walk over to where her twin was silently watching from a distance.

"Yo, Minako!" Jackie, Akiri, and Hamono completed the group, "You feeling alright? You look better than your sword at least"

Everyone's attention went to the shattered blade in Minako's hand, "Hmm…? Oh," She lifted it up to look at it closer, "it's not a big deal" As if to prove her point, Minako tossed the blade over her shoulder, "This time isn't going to be lasting very much longer, so let's leave. We can talk more back at the dorm"

A heavy silence accompanied SEES as they walked out of Tartarus. The Dark Hour ended right before they made it to Port Island Station and they boarded the train separately.

* * *

4/25 _Iwatodai Dorm_ (Shortly after Midnight)

* * *

The heavy silence persisted until the members of SEES arrived and sat down in the ground floor lodge.

Mitsuo was the first to break the silence, "Before we all go to bed, I'd like to address SEES's exploration of Tartarus from tonight on. Specifically, I'd like to discuss how we'll be combating that powerful Shadow you all ran into"

"We won't be" Everyone's attention went to the last person they'd expected to speak up, "We're not fighting that _thing_; end of discussion"

"Aristato-san" Mitsuo spoke again, "would you mind explaining to us why you think this way?"

Minako stared at her red-haired sempai before letting out a bitter laugh, "Because I'm not counting on us getting so absurdly lucky ever again"

"Mina's got a point there" Hamono spoke up, "I wasn't completely coherent after getting thrown into a wall, but I have a feeling that things would have gotten much, much worse if we weren't lucky enough to have that teleporter appear next to us"

Minako couldn't help the snort that escaped her, "That wasn't exactly the kind of 'lucky' I was talking about, but I guess you're not completely wrong"

"Enlighten us then, Aristato-san" Mitsuo was becoming slightly irritated while Hamono just stared at his twin with a confused look on his face, "How exactly were we so 'lucky'?"

"We were lucky that the Reaper wasn't carrying his scythe around tonight" Minako looked down at her callous-covered hands, "He could have killed us all in a heartbeat, but he didn't. The bastard was playing with us"

"How do ya know that anyways?" Jackie entered the conversation, "How are you sure that thing isn't just weaker than you think?"

Minako's eyes shot up and locked onto Jackie's, "Are you forgetting that that thing nearly killed you without trying? We weren't lucky that that teleporter showed up; I bargained that for you three"

She continued after receiving everyone's confused looks, "I baited the Reaper; taunted him into a one-on-one duel where by me staying and fighting, you three got a free ride back to the lobby. Of course, I never planned on facing him for longer than I had to. I got you three out, I put on a show, and I left; that's it"

Jackie looked to make a rebuttal, but Mitsuo quickly cut her off, "That's enough. It's far too late for us to be arguing over this when we _all_ have school in the morning. All of you; go to bed" He said his piece with a tone of finality that had the SEES juniors leaving the lobby immediately after he finished speaking.

…

…

…

"Akiri… I'm fairly certain that you're a part of the 'everyone going to sleep' group" Mitsuo looked at the silverette with a small trace of annoyance.

For her credit, Akiri shook her head at the Kirijo's light glare, "Not when you're like this, I'm not. Is that transmission still bothering you?"

Rather than respond to her question, Mitsuo walked over and opened up his laptop from its spot on the lobby's coffee table. He didn't browse anywhere other than to open up a file of SEES's chatter from that night's exploration. Looking up to make sure that all the juniors were gone, he clicked to a spot he'd already memorized and hit play.

"_I can hold that _thing_ back for a bit, but I can't do that and get you all out of here at the same time"_

"_Minako, no! Damn it…"_

Breaking through the slightly static-filled chatter came the rattling of chains, an inhuman scream, and the sound of wind flowing down an abyss.

"_I don't plan on running, at the moment" _A pause, _"I want you to let those three go; they don't pose a shadow of a threat to you right now. Instead I'll be fighting you"_

A blast of laughter from several disembodied voices, with more chains and growls following it.

"_Because you are bored. You run around this tower with nothing better to do, don't you? You could have easily killed us all, but you didn't; and why is that? Because you're bored and don't want to kill off your playmates immediately. But you don't want to go after them; you won't get any satisfaction from killing them. So fight me, I'll give you a challenge"_

A low, almost contemplative rumble sounded. Directly preceding it was several other voices, ending on a slightly higher tone.

"_I see… I can understand why you wouldn't accept my challenge…" _The line went quiet for a brief moment, before an inhuman growl rose challengingly from the connection. It was similar to the previous unidentifiable noises from before, but this one had a slightly feminine tone to it.

A quick conversation of growls and chains followed, ending with a short silence. Then gunfire; lots of it. A few more growls, then the transmitter fizzled between static and a barrage of explosions. After the first minute of straight explosions, the transmission ended as the small microphone transmitting the recording broke. Mitsuo exited out of the media player and closed his laptop.

…

"So what exactly are we supposed to make of this?" Akiri managed to break the silence.

Mitsuo sat down on the nearby loveseat, keeping his head up with a single hand, "… I actually don't know. From what I can gather, the 'Reaper', as Aristato-san dubbed it, is both sentient and highly intelligent; it's not some mindless Shadow. Also, Aristato-san seems to be able to communicate with it. But from what I saw and heard, either she's an extremely good liar or she didn't realize that it was speaking in a language that only she could understand"

Akiri walked over to stand next to Mitsuo, "There's a good chance that Minako-san will figure that last bit out on her own; she's proven to be remarkably sharp. Anyways, how do you think we should go from here?"

Mitsuo mulled it over before responding, "I'll need to send a copy of this to Father. For now, keep an eye on the Aristato twins; Aristato-kun's ability to summon multiple Personae and Aristato-san's level of integration with her Persona are previously unheard of. We need to make sure that their mental conditions don't deteriorate. Also" His gaze fell on the metal briefcase that Aristato-san had returned with, "it seems that I've got something else to look over"

The chiming of a clock informing SEES's sempai that it was already 1 am ended their conversation.

* * *

Despite his easy-going nature and general upbeat-ness, Hamono could enforce his will when the situation called for it. So, Minako didn't put up a fight when she got dragged down the second-floor hallway and all-but thrown into the last room on the right.

"Are you stupid or something, Mina?" Hamono wasn't pleased in the slightest about his twin's recent actions, pulling the door shut before turning back around, "Do you have any idea what kind of crap you put me, and for that matter Yutono, through when you pulled that stunt?"

Minako resisted shouting back at her twin and let out a deep breath, "I know what I did. Didn't you hear what I said before? I had no intention of actually fighting the Reaper"

"That's not what it looked like to me" Hamono narrowed his red eyes, "I might have been barely coherent and unable to hear anything, but Yutono had to carry me down to keep me from running after you. And it doesn't matter if you 'had no intention of actually fighting the Reaper' you were against the fucking _Grim Reaper_! Don't even try to casually brush that off!"

The blunette studied her brunette counterpart for a moment before responding, "So what? I know I was facing the Reaper; he told me himself. I also know exactly how hard I can push myself, not to mention how much he was holding back. I 'interest' him, so I'm fairly certain that the Reaper wasn't planning on killing me to start with; he's too bored to just kill off the most interesting thing he's run into in who-knows how long. So I-"

At this point, Minako was interrupted by a slap to the face from Hamono. Before she could manage a rebuttal, she found herself being tightly embraced by her twin, "Do you even hear yourself anymore, Mina?" Hamono sobbed as he continued, "Why are you acting like this? Don't you understand that we all worry about you? That _I _worry about you? You might not see an issue with getting beaten within an inch of your life, but I sure as hell do!" At this point, Hamono fully broke, crying into his sister's shoulder, "Damn it, Mina… Why?"

"Because you don't understand what it means to survive" Minako readjusted her grip on her brother before continuing, "Surviving is about picking your battles. If that means that I take a hit to the shoulder and the side so I can block the attacks aimed at my head, heart, and sword-arm, I'll do it. If that means making myself into Reaper-bait so that everyone can get out alive, I'll do it. That's all there is to it"

Hamono managed to pull himself off his twin's shoulder to look her in the eye, "And what? Are you invincible or something? Unbreakable?"

Much to his annoyance, she just shrugged the comments off, "Someone has to be; at least until everyone else gets strong enough keep themselves alive. So you want to keep me out of the danger zone? Just focus on getting yourself stronger"

At this, Minako fully removed her twin from her arms and walked over to the closed door. As she grabbed it, time froze for Hamono as he was forced to watch the Death Social Link go up to Rank II. Time resumed and she left his room without looking back.

_You always seem to keep everyone together, Mina. You're always there to pick up the pieces._

Hamono removed his clothing to change into his sleepwear, checking the extremely faint burn mark that traveled up his back in the mirror.

_But what's going to happen when you break? Who's going to pick up the pieces then?_

…

Outside in the hall, Minako rested her back against the wall.

_Invincible? Unbreakable? If only I was._

**Mistress…**

Whatever Thanatos had planned on saying was cut off by the faint noise of the clock in the lounge announcing that it was 1 am. Minako ran the rest of the way to her room; tomorrow was Saturday after all.

* * *

4/25 _Iwadotai Strip Mall_ (After School)

* * *

Compared to the previous night, Minako was happy to see that her overly emotional twin seemed to have sobered up after sleeping. Of course, the junior SEES members – sans Minako – were exhausted and spent most of the morning classes fast asleep on their desks. Swiping the wallet off her sleeping brother, Minako bought the three Yawn-B-Gone's. Hamono might not have been happy about losing a decent chunk of yen, but after enough caffeine to revive the dead, he wasn't in much of a position to complain.

The juniors went their separate ways after class ended, Hamono mentioning running to the nurse (probably from the caffeine), Yutono having archery club again, and Jackie ran off before she said anything to anyone. So here was Minako, making her way through Iwadotai's strip mall looking for a bookstore she'd heard re-opened. Shuffling through her mp3 player, she found the storefront – the display of books being a dead giveaway – and entered.

"… Welcome. What would you like today? We have fresh mackerel!" An older man spoke up as she entered.

…_What?_

An older woman that was probably his wife gave him a sidelong look before turning back to Minako, "… Sorry, as you can see, we don't sell fish here"

"Hey, you're a student, aren't you? You must be from Gekkoukan High, right?"

"Uh… yes?" Minako was slightly confused as to how where she went to school made any difference.

The old man, however, perked up slightly at her confirmation, "That means you've probably seen the persimmon tree there…"

Minako thought it over for a second…

_It _sounds _familiar…_

**You saw it briefly when Hamo was dragging you to track and field signups**

_That makes sense_

… and nodded in affirmation.

"That's great!" The old man smiled widely, "There's not a day that goes by that we don't think about that tree!"

The old woman caught Minako's confused expression, "Nevermind him, dear. He's just rambling. Welcome to our store; what's your name?"

"Minako Aristato" She responded with a slight bow

"Minako, huh?" The old man rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Mina-chan; that's what we'll call you!"

Minako just barely managed to hold in the shudder that ran up her spine at being called that.

_Calm down, Thanatos! _She's _not around!_

**I-I know… It's j-just…**

"Please don't call me that, I'm fine with just Minako" Minako quickly responded to try to control the situation.

"No, no, no; that's not going to happen. A cute lass like you should be called 'Mina-chan'" The old man continued on, unaware of Minako's reaction.

"I-I'll be back in a minute, please excuse me" Minako all but ran out of the bookstore. Taking a deep breath, she fished her phone out of her messenger bag and dialed her twin's number. It only took a few rings for him to pick up.

"_Mina? You need something?"_ Hamono was slightly confused to be getting a phone call from his twin.

"Kind of…" Minako scratched her head for a moment, "You wouldn't happen to still be at school, would you?"

"_Just got out of the nurse's office, actually"_ Hamono replied sheepishly,_ "I'm not exactly sure if I'm going to go there again if I'm not feeling well. That was mildly terrifying"_

"Hamo, you alright? Actually, nevermind. Can you do me a favor?"

"_I'm hurt you don't care about me" _Minako just snorted in response, _"But I guess I'm healthy enough for favors. What do you need?"_

"If you go outside to that hallway that leads to the gym, there should be a persimmon tree on your left. I need you go grab a leaf or something off it and meet me at the Iwatodai Strip Mall"

"_Odd request, but sure I can do that" _Hamono started to make his way through Gekkoukan High, _"You'll owe me, though"_

Minako sighed slightly; she knew how bartering with her twin worked, "The next time I go to the supermarket, you can tag along"

"_Deal" _Hamono smirked; he could practically see the exasperation on his twin's face already, _"See you soon"_

"Yeah, yeah"

* * *

"Yo, Mina!" Hamono jogged the rest of the way after seeing his twin leaning against a wall, listening to her mp3 as usual, "I'm not exactly sure why you want this leaf, but it's going to cost you!"

Minako rolled her eyes at her twin's antics, "Yeah, yeah, just hand it over" She motioned with her free hand and Hamono extracted the leaf from his pocket. She examined it for a moment before walking over and entering what appeared to be a bookstore. Curious, he followed her inside.

"Welcome to Bookworms. How many guests? Smoking or non-smoking?" An elderly man with glasses sat behind a counter next to an elderly woman almost hidden by the piles upon piles of books lying around everywhere.

"Neither" Hamono was almost shocked at how forthcoming Minako was acting, "I got a present for you here, old man"

"Hm? Wait, is that what I think it is?" The elderly man looked like he recognized the leaf in some way.

Minako placed the leaf on the counter between herself and the man, "That's right, it's from that tree you mentioned earlier"

The elderly man gently picked up the leaf, "It must have grown a lot since we've last gone to see it if it has grown such splendid leaves. Wait… Did you go all the way to Gekkoukan to get us this leaf? You didn't come here to buy books?"

"Well it was Hamo here" Minako gestured to her twin before continuing, "that actually got it; I just called him to get it"

"You called him?" The elderly man looked surprised, "You did that for us? I knew it! I knew you were a kind young lady from the start!"

"Thank you dear" The elderly woman spoke up, "And who might you be?"

Hamono smiled and approached the couple, "I'm Hamono Aristato and, believe it or not, this bluenette's twin brother"

The couple looked between the twins, no small amount of disbelieve between the two, "Twins?" the woman was the first one to speak, "That's surprising, but I guess there is some resemblance"

"Anyways" The man spoke back up, "I can't thank you two enough for what you've done. Truthfully, I've been meaning visit that tree for a while now. However, I don't think my _stumpy_ legs will make it that far"

Minako smacked her palm into her face as the man let out a chuckle, "… I didn't exactly mean for the pun to occur. You know, 'stumpy,' 'tree stump'. Catch my drift?"

Hamono grinned at his twin as the woman smiled at her husband, "Very clever, dear"

"Allow me to introduce my wife Mitsuko. I'm Bunkichi"

"It's nice to meet you" The twins replied in unison.

"Mina-chan and Hamo-chan, that's what we'll call you two from now on!"

Minako made a motion to correct the old man while Hamono just smiled as the world stopped.

***CRASH***

**Thou hast established a new bond. Thou shalt be blessed when observing Personae of the Hierophant Arcana.**

Hamono sighed contently as the warm feeling in his chest from the feeling of the Social Link forming washed over him.

* * *

**A/N: So a question to everyone reading: for the social links, would you prefer if I went through most of the in between links (rank 2-9 as ranks 1 and 10 will be written out for every one of Hamono's social links) or would you prefer if I focus more on TJoT exclusive stuff?**

**Anyways, the next chapter will finish up the remain time from now until the Priestess Full Moon which will be the chapter after that one. I've already got the entire Priestess Full Moon chapter planned out, so that one should get released relatively quickly. Until then.**


	12. Chapter 12: April 26 to May 5

**A/N: Holy hell this chapter took FAR too long for me to write. I apologize for the wait on this one, but as it turns out having nine days with a good bit on detail on some of those days in one chapter wasn't my brightest idea.**

**Reviews:**

**PhWoMp: Glad to hear you're liking things as they're going so far. As for romance for the twins, this chapter might give you a bit more insight as to what they might be, but that won't be starting until later on in this story.**

**Kingdom Hearts Slayer: I don't have any intention of cutting this story, so don't worry.**

**rebfan90: Hello, rebfan, my old friend. I've come to say hello again.**

**Fair warning: This chapter suffers from a severe case of mood whiplash. You have been warned.**

* * *

4/26 (Su) _Iwatodai Dorm_ (Late Night)

* * *

It had been a semi-lazy Sunday for the members of SEES; the twins being the only ones to actually leave the dorm all day. Hamono had run off, mentioning something about a bookstore near the train station. Minako had literally run off, already distracted by her mp3 player as she missed the multitude of looks she'd received for her workout gear as she left.

But night had fallen quickly, and the members of SEES returned to their rooms to turn in for the night. Sleep had come easily for all but Jackie, as she stayed up late playing videogames despite the school night.

Hours later, in a silent and dark room, the sole resident nearly jumped out of their bed; one hand uselessly grabbing at sheets while the other was already reflexively jammed into their mouth to silence the screams.

4/27 (Mo) _Gekkoukan High School_ (After School)

"I apologize for making you two wait; Aristato-kun, Aristato-san"

The twins turned to face their sempai as he entered the classroom of 2-F.

"Ah, Mitsuo-sempai" Hamono was the first to speak, greeting him with a smile, "Is this about what you talked about earlier?"

Mitsuo nodded, "That's right. To make a long story short, I want you two to join Student Council"

"Uh…" Hamono stared at his sempai while Minako just waited for an explanation.

"I won't ask you two to spend all your free time on it, but I'd appreciate it if you showed up from time to time"

"That's it?" This time, Minako responded.

"That's right" Mitsuo motioned at the twins with his hands, "Being President is already strenuous enough; if there was ever the event of an emergency, it would be comforting to know that I had you two on staff to help out"

Hamono muled it over briefly before responding, "Why do you need us for this? Wouldn't this work better if you had Akiri-sempai being your 'helper'?"

Minako didn't miss when Mitsuo shifted slightly at the mention of the silverette.

"Akiri is busy with being the captain of the boxing club," Mitsuo paused while considering what to say next, "You've shown considerable skill as a leader in the short time that I've known you, not to mention your natural sociability are both skills that are invaluable on the Student Council"

"Alright, I see" Hamono scratched his cheek as he realized something, "If that's the case, what do you need Mina for?"

Mitsuo visibly flinched at the question, "I-I apologize if I might sound objective here, but I require Aristato-san's aid due to her, _gender_, more than anything else"

"With Akiri-sempai busy, your only other option would have been Jackie-kun and, well…" Minako trailed off at the end of her statement.

Mitsuo nodded his head, "Thank you for understanding. I knew I could count on the two of you. Now, I've set up an appointment with your faculty advisor to sign up for Student Council. I'd appreciate it if you both could come to the meeting today"

"Got it sempai" Minako nodded and stood up, turning to her twin, "Let's go"

Hamono scratched the back of his head meekly, "Yeah, you see… I kinda, sorta promised Rio-san that I'd go to Track practice today"

"That's alright" The twins turned back to Mitsuo, "Just come when you can"

* * *

"Alright everyone," Mitsuo stood at the center of the room and clapped his hands to gather everyone's attention, "I'm glad to see everyone here for the first official meeting of the year. Now, during our unofficial meeting last week, I mentioned two students that would be possibly helping out with the Student Council this year" Mitsuo motioned over to Minako who walked up beside her sempai and faced the students in the room, "This here is Minako Aristato, she'll be helping with the Treasurer mainly. Her twin brother, Hamono Aristato, will also be helping out but cannot make today's meeting"

Minako fought to visibly cringe from the amount of attention she was getting.

_Why did I do this again?_

**Brownie points**

_Ah, yes. Brownie points; forgot about those_

"I'll be in your care" Minako quickly stated with a small bow.

After general introductions ended, Minako was approached by an uptight looking junior with a yellow armband and an extremely timid freshman.

"Minako Aristato, huh?" The junior spoke up first, "I'm Hidetoshi Odagiri, a supervisor in the Disciplinary Committee. I've heard a bit about you and your brother" Hidetoshi offered his hand which Minako returned with a firm handshake. He raised his brow as he felt the callouses on her hand; an expression that Minako responded to with a flat look.

"I-I'm Chi-hiro Fushimi, the Treasurer" Chihiro fought to look at Minako's face, looking to the side while stealing glances at her. "I-I'm just a freshman, s-so I'm still learning ho-w things work around here. P-please be patient with me, Aristato-san"

Minako quickly realized that the two of them were the only girls left in the room, a short look at Mitsuo and a nod in response confirming her suspicions, "It's nice to meet you, Hidetoshi-san, Chihiro-san"

Hidetoshi grinned at the bluenette while Chihiro blushed and looked at the floor; Minako's face tightened at the display.

"The President picked you himself, huh?" Hidetoshi looked Minako over, "You might be working mostly with the Treasurer here, but I might be tempted to poach you every once and a while"

* * *

4/28 (Tu) _Gekkoukan High School _(After School)

* * *

Hamono stretched his arms over his head as the school day came to a close. He mulled over what he was going to do today; practice with Rio was fun and all, but two days in a row would have been suicide.

"Hey, Hamono. Are you free today?" Looking up revealed Yutono standing in front of his desk. Looks like his plans were made for the day.

Hamono grinned before responding, "Finally got a break from Archery Club, huh? Yeah I'm free, what did you have in mind?" He got out of his seat without waiting for a response and threw on his backpack.

"There's this café over in Paulownia Mall that I know" Yutono began to walk beside Hamono when the red-eyed twin stopped in place.

"Sounds good; just hang on for a sec…" Hamono walked back over to where his twin was finishing packing her messenger bag and throwing it over her shoulder, "Hey, Mina! You got anything planned for today?"

"Hmm? Oh, hey Hamo. I was thinking of going to tra-ACK!" Minako was cut off by her twin throwing his arm around her neck and pulling her along with him.

"No you're not! You're coming with me Mina!"

Hamono dragged his sister out into the hallway, pulling her along to where Yutono was waiting. Minako managed a quick 'hello' to Chihiro as they passed her in the hall.

* * *

_Paulownia Mall_

* * *

An amused Yutono, a happy Hamono, and a slightly rustled Minako arrived at the near-empty café and took their seats at one of the tables in the middle of the room. A teenage girl wearing a maid outfit took their order of three coffees and returned with it a few minutes later. Minako wasn't sure what to make of the wink that was sent at both her brother and Yutono when their orders arrived, but considering how neither of them seemed to notice she ignored it.

The three teens each took a long drink of their beverages before anyone spoke up.

"You were right, Yutono" Hamono was the first to speak, his trademark smile shining already, "This coffee is good"

"Yeah, I've known about this place for a w…" Yutono's expression twisted slightly, "Uh… that's not what I wanted to talk to you two about" He bought himself sometime by taking another drink of his coffee, "Remember when you first woke up after that night on the rooftop? Remember how I said stuff like 'I'm like you two'? That was pretty insensitive of me"

Hamono opened his mouth to speak, but Yutono cut him off, "Just… listen to me for a bit, okay? I shouldn't have said that. I mean, I might have lost my mom back then, but you two lost both of your parents. I just thought that I could relate to you two… It's hard sometimes, going around school hearing your classmates complain about things like how they'll get yelled at for being out too late or for getting bad grades"

"I've had to deal with that too" Hamono spoke up finally, "It's never easy to deal with stuff like that"

Yutono nodded back, "Yeah, you never realize what you'll miss until your mom's dead and your dad might as well be. We might be in similar situations, but everyone reacts differently. I'm impressed that you can be as bright as you are despite everything, Hamono"

Hamono's grin slipped into a more solemn expression after hearing that. Minako, who up that point had been staring blankly at her coffee, stood up suddenly, "I'm going to the bathroom" she responded to the silent question.

"Thanks Mina" Hamono gave his twin a small smile while Yutono just looked along with a puzzled expression on his face.

With a small sigh, Hamono turned back to his friend, "Mina doesn't like to talk about the past, so she tends to leave when I want to talk about what happened" Yutono nodded in understanding and Hamono continued, "In all honesty, if it wasn't for Mina, I probably would have never made it through that accident"

Yutono made no motion to stop his friend, "After the accident, I kind of _broke_…" Hamono's expression turned grim, "I'd lost both of my parents, and Mina was in a coma for a month afterwards so I thought I'd lost her too. I still remember the days I spent crying into the bed sheets while desperately hoping that she would wake up" Hamono looked down at his coffee, "When she woke up, Mina threw aside any issues she might have had in favor of getting me back together. I was ridiculously clingy for a very long time after the accident; I refused to let her out of my sight for anything other than a trip to the bathroom. We shared a bedroom back in the orphanage that we lived in after Mina got released from the hospital so I never had to worry about nightmares. Though, that living arrangement got thrown out the window when we moved into our foster home. Our foster mother was quite the traditionalist, as I'm sure you've heard, and she gave me and Mina hell for some of our habits" Hamono let out a dry laugh, "I don't know how she did it and continues to do it, but she's always been there for me; no matter what… I'm so damn lucky to have her as a sister" Hamono looked up at Yutono and forced a smile; "Do me a favor, will you? Keep an eye on Mina for me. A brother worries from time to time; especially after what happened to her"

"…What happened to Minako?" Yutono couldn't help his curiosity.

Hamono swirled his coffee around in his cup, "Sorry, but that's for Mina to tell you"

The two spent the rest of the time until said bluenette returned in companionable silence, finishing their coffee.

Minako sat down and looked at the two brunettes, starting at her twin and moving to Yutono.

Yutono smiled at her, "Don't worry, the pity party is over now"

Minako and Yutono were still looking at each other when time stopped for Hamono.

**CRASH**

**Thou art I… And I am Thou. Thou shalt be blessed when thou connects thy heart to Personae of the Lovers Arcana.**

Minako felt a chill go up her spine and slowly turned to her twin. Hamono stared back at her with a much larger and mischief-filled grin than she expected him to have on his face.

* * *

4/29 (We) _Iwatodai Dorm_ (Afternoon)

* * *

"As of today, all the damage to the dorm should be fixed. So if you've got a laptop, you should be able to connect to the internet once again. The only thing that hasn't been fixed yet is Akiri's ribcage"

Akiri attempted to press herself further into the couch as Mitsuo pinned her with a sickly smile. The juniors suppressed their laughs and Hamono left the dorm for the bookstore.

"Yo, Minako! Remember that game I mentioned last night? Guess who's got an extra copy~?"

Minako allowed herself a small smile; she didn't mind goofing off with Jackie for today.

* * *

4/30 (Th) _Gekkoukan High School _(After School)

* * *

Once again, Minako found herself being dragged out of class 2-F a few minutes after the final bell of the day rung; this time by Kazushi who was not happy about her playing hooky from practice that Tuesday. As a punishment, Kazushi forced Minako to join him in lapping the school a few times after normal practice.

Running on autopilot, Minako's thoughts wandered as she lost track of how many times she'd completed a lap.

"M-Minako-san… Wait up!"

Minako slowed down and turned to face Kazushi as he caught up to her, "Yes, Kazushi-san?"

Kazushi nearly doubled over as he stopped, rasping as he forced air down his burning lungs, "Damn… Minako-san how are you fine after all that?"

Minako paused briefly before responding, just realizing that her legs were feeling tired and just how much her lungs were burning more than normal, "Uh… I'm in shape?"

Kazushi frowned slightly at Minako's extremely weak response, "You're better than that, do you know how many times we've run around the school? "

"I sort of forgot to stop running; wasn't really paying attention"

"What the!?" Kazushi nearly fell over, "Do you do some kind of special training or something?"

"Something like that"

_You think he'd buy my 'ultimate tag' excuse?_

**I know I called bullshit on that the first time, but after that fight with the Reaper…**

"Man, I need to step my game up! From now on, you and I are rivals!" Kazushi spoke with a grin on his face; one that faded as he suddenly grabbed his leg and collapsed onto the ground.

"Kazushi-san!"

Minako crouched down next to the tan teen, watching as he held his leg.

"It's… nothing, Gah… Just my asthma acting up…"

Minako rolled her eyes before flicking her teammate on the head, "If you really expected me to believe that lie, you should have said it without grabbing your leg". She moved over to his side and threw one of his arms over her shoulder, "Come on, let's get you to the Nurse's Office"

Minako forced down the small part of her conscience that reminded her of Hamono's off-hand comment about the Nurse's Office in favor of aiding her teammate back to the school.

They'd made it just within the school gate when a voice interrupted them from behind, "Kaz? Minako? Is someone injured?"

Minako didn't miss Kazushi paling at the voice of the team's manager, Yuko.

_Put another notch on the 'saving guys I barely know'._

**Done.**

"Kazushi-san here just has a really bad cramp; we were doing laps around the school for a while so that's why I'm helping him to the Nurse's Office"

"Kaz!" Yuko threw her arms up in frustration, "You ran yourself to the point of cramping up again?! How many time is this now?"

_Looks like I'm not the only one with a counter._

Minako kept her amusement to herself as Kazushi sheepishly looked at Yuko as she continued to berate him. Letting him stew for a minute, Minako excused the two of them and they continued to the Nurse's Office. Minako resisted the urge to throw her teammate onto bed in the office and call an ambulance to take him to the hospital.

Instead, Minako settled for helping him sit down on the bed before flopping onto a nearby chair. She flipped her phone open to check to see if anyone was looking for her.

"Uh…" Minako gave Kazushi a sidelong glance when he started talking, "Dammit, I just can't lie to you…"

_FINALLY._

"Go on…" Minako masked her triumphant smirk.

"It's my leg… Ever since that practice two days ago, it hasn't felt right ever since. I put medicine on it and message it, but the pain never completely goes away" Kazushi balled some of the bed sheets in his hands as he tightened his grip.

"Stopping to let this fully heal is out of the question for you, isn't it?"

Kazushi looked up in surprise at his rival's words, a complete 180 from the verbal lashing he was expecting. He managed to nod back dumbly, "That's right. There's a national competition coming up in a year, it dwarfs any of the local events. I _have_ to be in it and I _have_ to win it, so I gotta work through the pain"

Minako sighed slightly and rested her head on her palm as she thought through her teammate's words, "You do realize how stupid this sounds to me, right?" Minako waved her free hand when she saw Kazushi's shocked face, "I never said to not do it; I just want to make sure you understand what's probably going to happen to your leg if you continue doing this"

Kazushi looked at the blunette with a shocked expression on his face, "Wait, you're not gonna stop me from training?"

"No, as I'm sure you've got your reasons for doing this. I'm used to Hamo running off to do stupid things every once and a while anyways"

"Thanks, Minako-san" Kazushi had an easy smile on his face, "Can you do me a favor and keep this a secret? A lot of the guys on the team are nosy and I don't want them to find out…"

Minako sighed, "Sure, though I think Yuko is the one you need to be more worried about finding out about this"

As if to confirm her suspicions, Kazushi visibly paled at the mentioning of the assistant manager. Biding her teammate farewell, Minako left the Nurse's Office. Entering the woman's locker room to change from her track suit back into her uniform caused her to almost run into aforementioned assistant manager.

"Hmm… Oh, Minako!" Minako looked over her shoulder as Yuko approached her.

"Yuko, do you need something?" Minako opened up her locker and began to change her clothes.

Yuko opened her own locker but only to drop off a clipboard she'd been holding, "Oh, nothing too major. I just wanted to talk to you for a bit; you know you're really the only girl in the cross country part of our track team"

Minako had noticed that right away, "I've noticed…"

"It really was funny, though. You should have seen some of the guys' faces when you were easily keeping pace with Kaz. Are you sure you really weren't on the track team in your last school"

"Yeah, I wasn't in any clubs"

"That's pretty sur-"

Yuko was cut off by a cellphone ringing. Minako reached into her bag and pulled it out, flipping it open without looking as she already knew who it was.

"Something wrong, Hamo?"

"_No… Uh, this is going to sound a bit weird, but do you mind coming to Paulownia Mall for me right now?"_

Minako couldn't help but raise an eyebrow even though she knew her twin couldn't see her, "Paulownia Mall? I guess I can stop by; I'm just changing after cross country practice anyways. What do you need me at the mall for anyways?"

"_I don't think I can explain this over the phone… Just come and I promise I'll try to explain things when you get here"_

"You're not inspiring much confidence in me right now, Hamo. But whatever; I'll humor you. See you then"

Minako closed her cell, "Sorry, Yuko. Looks like we'll need to have our chat another time"

"Its fine" Yuko waved her hand dismissively, "Our girl talk can wait"

Yuko left the locker room as Minako finished changing. She left the locker room and made her way out of Gekkoukan High School.

* * *

_Paulownia Mall_ (Early Evening)

* * *

Minako entered the mall and idly looked around; the mall was fairly empty but she couldn't see Hamono from where she was standing.

_Is he in one of the shops?_

**Well, he does like to wander from time to-**

Minako had been walking around the fountain when her inner musings were cut off by a single voice.

"MIIINNAAA-CHHANNN"

She turned around just in time to have a blue blur crash into her and easily lift her into the air. It took all of her self-control to prevent herself from screaming and desperately trying to escape.

"Hey, Elizabeth!" "Sister!"

Hamono and another man drabbed in blue ran up to where Minako was still being held in the air. If Minako's arms weren't pinned against her sides by the sheer strength of the woman holding her up, she would have smashed at least one of them into her face.

"It's you two, again" Minako tried to keep the annoyance out of her voice, but mostly failed

Hamono almost instantly picked up on his twin's wording, "Again?"

"Mina-chan! It's been so long! And look at you! You've gotten so big!" Elizabeth smiled widely as she twirled in place, spinning Minako around her in a circle.

"Yes I have" Minako squirmed as she was still about two feet off the ground, "Please put me down now, Liz"

"Of course" Elizabeth daintily placed the blunette down before taking a step back and fully observing her, "You've changed a lot since you were last with us"

"It's been almost four years since _that_ happened" Minako poked Elizabeth on the forehead, "Of course I've grown. I'm human; unlike you and Theo"

"Wait" Hamono was thoroughly confused, "You know these two?"

"Of course we know Mistress Minako" Theodore spoke in his usual regal tone, "Though my sister is right, it has been a very long time since we've last met. You could imagine our surprise when your twin brother appeared before us as a guest of the Velvet Room, Mistress"

Minako blinked owlishly at her twin brother, "You're involved with these two idiots?"

"Uh…" Hamono scratched the back of his head, "I guess so?"

"And you let them out of the Velvet Room?" Minako's face couldn't get more deadpan if she tried

"They're offering me rewards for doing 'quests' or something like that. One of them just happened to be that they wanted a tour of Paulownia Mall"

"And I, Elizabeth, wished to see you again. So we had Hamo-kun here summon you via his communication device"

…

"I hope you understand, Hamo, that there's a reason they can't leave the Velvet Room on their own"

"I guess so. I'm somewhat relieved that you know them already. I don't know how I would have explained them to you if you didn't"

"Ah, this building. There are many stern-faced men inside"

"You're right, Sister. And look! There are posters here offering rewards for the heads of certain individuals"

"So, your world has subjugation quests as well? Maybe I should complete a few…"

Minako stared blankly at her brother before turning and beginning to follow the wandering Velvet Room siblings, "Come on, Hamo. Let's make sure your _friends_ don't blow half the mall up by accident"

Hamono couldn't agree with his sister fast enough.

…

…

"Is this one of those wishing fountains I've heard of? Where one's desires are granted in exchange for a minor amount pocket money?"

"Sister, this aqueous structure is clearly here for washing your hands!"

…

…

"Liz, please stop dancing. You're attracting a crowd"

"But it's soo much fun!"

…

"Oh my. I was unaware that this area was host to a trinity of fountains. I must pay my respects"

"Wait, Elizabeth. Don't just run around throwing money everywhere!"

"Hmm… This water is exactly 15*C"

"Theo, you might be crazy. But at least you're the calm kind of crazy"

…

"Now where should we go next?"

Hamono taped his chin thoughtfully, "Well, we haven't been to the karaoke place or the arcade so maybe one of those two?"

"Karaoke? Is that the place I've heard of? Where one can challenge famous singers at the push of a button?"

"Arcade? Is that a series of arches?"

"Liz, no. Theo, no. Hamo, stop giving them ideas"

…

…

"I must thank you for the tour today, Mistress. It was most informative"

"Yes, I hope this was a _learning experience _for all of us…" Hamono shrunk against the wall of the back alley leading to the Velvet Room under the glare of his sibling.

"Alright, Alright! We'll go back now. Just wait for me out her, Mina"

Minako leaned against a wall as the Velvet Room siblings and her brother entered the glowing blue door further down the alley.

…

… **I-is she gone?**

_Yes, Thanatos, she's gone_

**Thank what small part of heaven doesn't hate me... Please tell me we won't be meeting her again anytime soon?**

_I hope not, those two are quite the handful. Though, I'd like to know when Hamo plans on bringing them into this world._

**Speaking of your brother, what do you think is taking him so long?**

_Well, he's probably…_

…

**Mistress?**

…

"… Shit…"

* * *

"Welcome back to the Velvet Room"

"Igor" Hamono silently thanked that his Personae could feel his emotions and made no moves to interrupt him, "I think you owe me a proper explanation on Mina's situation. Now"

Igor let out a small sigh as Elizabeth and Theodore returned to their places at his sides, "I suppose I can enlighten you slightly as to the status of your sister"

Igor swept his hands over the table in front of him and two tarot cards arose from it: The Strength and Death Arcanas.

"So you see-"

"Last time I checked" Hamono nearly jumped when he felt a hand come down on his left shoulder, "That wasn't your story to tell, Pinocchio"

Slowly turning revealed a scowling Minako to Hamono, "Mina?! Wha… How are you here?"

Minako moved slightly over to the side, twirling a black key around her pointer finger, "I've got a Skeleton Key"

"Minako, dear" Igor spoke, smiling at the twins, "It's been far too long since we've last met"

"I said I would visit if I ever had any problems; I didn't so I never felt like stopping by"

Igor just chuckled, "I see"

"Mina" Minako turned to face her twin, "Can _you_ explain why you're involved with the Velvet Room"

"Fine" Minako walked up to the table in front of Igor and grabbed the Strength Tarot Card. She lifted it up with her left hand a waved it in front of her brother. Hamono only now noticed the long, black chain that wrapped itself around the length of her left arm. "I'm originally of the Strength Arcana. However, due to certain _circumstances_, I've been augmented by the Death Arcana. That's really it"

Minako replaced the tarot cards back onto the table and walked back to her twin. Spinning in place, Hamono was only slightly surprised when she pulled a chair made almost entirely of chains from thin-air and sat down in it.

…

"**sHe iS a fAscInaTinG sPEcImeN. mAy I DisSecT hER?"**

"No, Omoikane, you can't dissect my sister" Hamono frowned at his Persona. He knew it was shaped like a brain, but it didn't have to constantly ask to 'examine' people.

"**Hey! Miss!"**Minako looked up to see a small pixie siting on her brother's head, **"Nice to meetcha! I'm Pixie!"**

"**Pixie" **Minako looked to the side to see Orpheus working to keep Hamono's other Personae from interjecting into the conversation.

"Speaking of the Death Arcana" The twins turned back to face Theodore, "How is Thanatos doing, Mistress?"

Minako kept herself from flinching at the expression her brother was giving her, "He's doing fine, Theo"

"Is he being respectful towards you?"

Minako sighed, "Yeah, he's following that 'refer to her as Mistress' rule you set up; as ridiculous as it can be at times"

"Mina" Hamono finally spoke up, "I hope you know you have a good bit of explaining to do"

"I know…" Minako stood up…

"**Hee Hoo!"**

… "Let's just do this somewhere a bit more quiet"

The twins exited the Velvet Room.

* * *

"Alright, where to begin" Minako rubbed her forehead as she attempted to come up with an explanation for her brother.

Hamono made no motion to speak, for once being the quiet one of the two.

"Maybe I should explain something vital in regards to Personae. I've know this for a while now, just never had the right labels for the ideas. Basically, a Persona represents a part of your heart's desire. I'm not exactly sure how it works in your case, but for all other normal Personae users that's the case. As Persona come from their Summoner's own desires, there are rarely problems between the two in terms of reasons for fighting, conflicts of interest, etc. However, there are times in which Summoners and Personae disagree. Depending on the Persona and the Summoner, this can vary between being a very minor or a very major problem. At best, the two have a short mental argument, resolve their differences, and move on. At worst, the Persona rejects their Summoner and kills the individual when the Persona inevitably rips itself from the Summoner's soul"

Hamono nodded at his twin, encouraging her to continue.

"Well Thanatos and I got into a bit of a _disagreement _about six years ago. Considering that it would have been a bad situation had Thanatos been a normal Persona, the conflict threatened to rip the majority of my soul and my insides into pieces"

"So that time you got extremely sick in the orphanage?"

Minako nodded, "That's it. I got lucky, though. Somehow, Liz stumbled upon me and took it upon herself to 'solve' my problem. Of course, her version of problem solving involved ripping Thanatos out of me before blasting him into submission while having me on a spiritual version of life support. Theo basically set up 'guidelines' for Thanatos to follow and we've been think as thieves ever since"

Hamono stayed silent for a minute, slowly digesting what he'd heard, "Hey Mina" He continued when his twin met his eyes again, "Is there a reason you lied about the name of your Persona?"

"Are you talking about Pharos vs Thanatos?" Minako continued when her twin nodded, "It's difficult to explain, but they're essentially the same thing. Pharos is Thanatos' Familiar in a sense. It was more for PR than anything; easier to say the Egyptian word for 'lighthouse' than the Greek God of Blissful Death"

"I see…" Hamono paused for a moment before walking up and embracing his twin. The two held each other before he continued, "Please, Minako, understand that you don't have to go at this alone. You're the last blood family I've got left, and I want you to trust me with stuff like this"

Hamono could feel his sister nodding into his shoulder. Time stopped, and Hamono smiled contently when the warmth of the Death Social Link raising to rank 3 mixed with the warmth of the embrace.

After a few more precious seconds, Hamono broke the hug; preferring to grab Minako's hand as he led her back into the main hall of the mall. Right before they left the alley, Hamono was surprised when Minako pulled him back into it.

"Something wrong?" was his immediate question.

Minako shook her head, "I just wanted to give you a warning. Be careful when you bring Liz and Theo into this world. They might seem all naïve, but they each are immensely powerful. Just call me whenever they've got 'quests' involving coming to this world. Wouldn't want half of Iwatodai to be destroyed because of them"

"Alright" Hamono smiled before dragging his sister out of the alley, "Now, onwards to the photo booth!"

* * *

5/1 (Fr) _Tatsumi Port Island Medical Center _(After School)

* * *

"Hey, Akiri-sempai! I've got-"

Hamono froze in place, staring into the hospital room where his sempai should have been.

"… that item…"

Yutono chuckled nervously.

"you… asked for"

Jackie attempted to meld herself into wall under the unrelenting glare of a beanie wearing brunette. Silver eyes stared at the three juniors. The woman didn't speak until a certain blunette enter the room, wondering why her three classmates were just standing in the doorway.

"You…"

"Me"

"The hell are you doing here?"

"Just checking up on a sempai, that's all"

…

…

"What are all of you doing here?" Akiri showed up and manage to dispel the very awkward air in the air.

Jackie managed to peel herself off the wall as Yutono turned around, "We figured we'd see how you're doing. You look fine, though"

"Of course I'm fine" Akiri responded dismissively, "I'm just here for a check-up. Jackie, did you bring what I asked you to?"

Jackie reached into her book bag and pulled out a handheld grip strengthener, "Got it right here, sempai!"

"Thanks"

"Aki"

The juniors turned again to face the brunette.

"Is that all you wanted?"

"Yeah" Akiri smiled slightly, "Thanks for your time"

"Tch, you know better than to be wasting my time with that shit"

Jackie couldn't jump aside fast enough to let the woman past her.

…

"You two…" The brunette stared down the twins. Hamono jumped slightly in surprise while Minako stared silently, "Nevermind"

…

"Who was that?" Yutono was the first to speak up again.*

"She's a friend of sorts" Akiri scratched her cheek, "She knows a few people with Apathy Syndrome, so I was asking her some questions about it"

_Well looks like someone's trying to learn how to lie like I do. Sorry sempai, but its three parts _truth_ and one part lie not three parts lies and one part truth._

"Anyways" Akiri started rotating her injured arm around, "We should get moving"

"Sempai!" Yutono looked surprised, "You shouldn't be moving your arm like that"

Akiri gave her kouhai a flat look, "I've wasted enough time as it is. If I don't get back to my training now, I'm going to burst from non-action"

Jackie gave a wide grin, "Hehe, that's right! Gekkoukan's Unbeatable Boxing Queen! Can't keep her out of the ring!"

…

Everyone else stared blankly at Jackie.

"Sometimes…" Akiri spoke up, "I just don't get you. Anyways, it seems like there's a chance we might be getting a new member. Sayoko told me that one of their machines picked up on someone with potential, but they're going to need more proof before we can act on it"

* * *

5/3 (Su) _Iwatodai Dorm_ (Extremely Early Morning)

* * *

"It's been a very long time since we've last talked like this"

Minako blinked, her eyes attempting to adjust to the pitch-black void she was currently in. Stepping out from the shadows came a very familiar figure.

"Yes it has, Pharos"

Pharos looked back at the blunette with a genuine smile on his face.

"Have you gotten older?"

It wasn't a very noticeable difference, but Minako knew Pharos had aged slightly. She wouldn't have ever believed it if she wasn't looking directly at him and his slightly longer hair and slightly taller stature; Pharos couldn't age, Familiars didn't age.

"It seems that I have" Pharos pulled on his hair with his right hand, revealing a handcuff around his wrist connected by a long chain to one on Minako's left hand, "But, it seems that I'm not the only one to have recently changed"

"What do you mean by that?" Minako couldn't help but ask

Pharos cocked his head in confusion, "You mean you can't tell? It may not be much, but you're definitely stronger than before"

Minako grasped and un-grasped her fist repeatedly; now that he'd mentioned it, Minako did feel a bit stronger, "But who got stronger? Myself, or Thanatos?"

Pharos chuckled lightly, "In this case, both of you have grown. You have both grown and become stronger in a way that no amount of training can achieve. In fact, if you had confronted the Reaper a little over a month ago, you wouldn't have survived your encounter"

Minako relaxed and thought back on the encounter. Jackie had stopped and turned to face the Reaper. Hamono had attempted to pull Jackie out of the way. The Reaper knocked both of them into a wall. Yutono had grabbed her shoulder with a look on his face of fear.

_But what kind of fear? The obvious answer would be of loss; he's the team's medic so it's his burden when we get injured. The Reaper wasn't attempting to kill any of us at that time, so kill intent is out. What else would there be to fear in that situation?_

Minako thought back harder, bringing up the memory of Yutono's fear-filled face… one that was barely laced with confusion.

"Pharos, was I the only one to understand what the Reaper was saying that night?"

Pharos' smile widened, "As expected of you, my dearest. You're right; you are the only one of your friends that is able to understand what the Reaper says. It's fascinating to see what a small piece of growth does to you; it makes me wonder how you will continue to develop as time goes on"

Pharos stopped smiling, looking down at his feet, "The possibilities within you; for someone who has lost so much to hold such potential. It only makes me wonder how you would have ended up if you hadn't been burdened with me"

Minako walked forwards and hugged Pharos, gently patting him on the back, "I can't do anything about what has happened to me; I can only control some of what will happen to me. After all, 'time delivers us all to the same end'"

* * *

They were back in Tartarus, the darkened halls and the distant rattling of chains indicating that they were on the run from that monster.

There was no warning as Hamono and Jackie were thrown down the hall and slammed against the wall at the end of it. Their bodies slid to the floor and remained on the ground motionless.

Minako stood back up, sword in hand, and spoke out to him. But he couldn't hear her; his hearing was muddled. Like he was underwater.

He rushed over to where his two friends were, desperately reaching out to check their pulses. Nothing, neither of them had a pulse. It was only then that he realized the large pool of blood seeping from their bodies and collecting around him.

The blood was everywhere; it was all over him.

"Y-Yutono"

He slowly turned around, bringing a nearly-dead Minako into view. She was on her knees, her right arm completely blown off from gunfire.

"R-Run… Yut-oo-nno"

Minako's speech was cut off by one last gunshot, one that disintegrated her entire head and the majority of her upper body. Blood poured out of her corpse and slowly slid across the floor towards him.

There was blood. There was so much blood. On his hands. On him. On the friends he still didn't have the strength to help when it was needed.

Then, he was there. The Reaper was right above him, cocking one revolver one last time. He pulled the trigger.

He woke up again, his hand halfway down his throat not enough to hold back the strangled screams that escaped him. His right hand flailed uselessly against his bed sheets. He had no control of his own body.

When he finally calmed down enough, Yutono found himself covered in a cold sweat with his heart pounding hard enough to nearly break his rib cage. A look to the side told him that it was almost 4 am. He shakily got out of his bed, walking over to the sink in order to rinse his face clean.

He wasn't getting anymore sleep tonight.

* * *

After the night's first company, Minako couldn't help but be somewhat surprised at Yutono's surprise appearance in the early hours of the morning while she was enjoying some coffee.

"Yutono-kun" Said dorm mate blinking in surprise, as if just realizing that the lights in the dorm kitchen were on at 4:30 in the morning, "Is something wrong?"

Yutono managed to walk to the kitchen counter and sit down while only stumbling twice, "N-No, of course not… Why do you ask?"

Minako's eyebrow twitched, the bags under his eyes and his unsteadiness told her exactly what was keeping him up, "No particular reason. I swear, I just keep running into the most prideful men in Iwatodai"

Minako stood up from the counter top before Yutono had anytime to respond. She returned with another steaming mug of coffee and placed it in front of him.

"Thanks" Yutono took a sip in an attempt to calm his nerves, "If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing up?"

Minako gave the brunette an amused expression before responding, "Just some food-for-thought…"

"Like what?"

"Like how I was the only one who could understand the Reaper"

Minako hid a grim look as Yutono paled and immediately looked down. It seemed like he still hadn't fully recovered from that fight.

Yutono laughed dryly before talking again, "I've got to ask Minako. Just how do you do it? How can you act in the face of what looks like certain death?"

"While I may not have ever faced the Reaper before, I've been in situations where I escaped death by the skin of my teeth"

Minako took a long drink of her coffee before continuing, "The first time was the first time I ever fought a Shadow. It was a little over four years ago when it happened; Hamo and I were still living at the orphanage at that time. On the nights where I'd wake up during the Dark Hour, I'd go outside and walk around. It was only slightly less disturbing than waking up next to a coffin. Anyways, I'd been walking out in front of a building, when the window next to me exploded. The next thing I knew, I was pinned against the ground by one of those Maya type Shadows"

Minako's eyes visibly darkened, "That was the first time I had to tear apart a Shadow with my bare hands. It's the reason why I have no problem grabbing Shadows if I need to"

Yutono nodded in understand, before remembering something, "Wait, didn't you say that Shadows only started to show up around three years ago?"

"Did I say that? I must have misspoke; that was the time that I first started actively fighting back against Shadows. I wouldn't call what I did before then 'fighting'. It was simply living"

Yutono studied Minako closely, trying to see if anything was wrong with her expression.

"That wasn't the last time I was in a bad spot; the time after that was during summer time less than two years ago. It was almost the end of the Dark Hour and I'd just finished killing off a few Shadows when I was ambushed. I never saw it coming, but I definitely felt it when I got a sword through my stomach. The Shadow lifted me off my feet and just stared at me. I managed to fight back the pain enough to cut its sword arm off and bash its head in. The Dark Hour ended right after that happened"

"How did you survive?" Was Yutono's obvious question

Minako just chuckled darkly, "By pure dumb luck, that's all. I shouldn't have survived, not then nor before that, but I have and I will continue to do so"

Yutono took another drink of his coffee before attempting to steer the conversation in a different direction, "You ever have any nightmares about back then?"

"Sometimes, it's not often that I have nightmares though"

Yutono paused as he considered his next question, "Do… you ever have any nightmares about your parents?"

…

When Yutono didn't get an answer, but instead got the image of Minako slowly swirling her coffee around her mug with an emotionless mask on her face, he first considered that he'd stumbled across Minako's deepest and most jagged scar.

* * *

_Iwatodai Dorm_ (Evening)

* * *

"Hamo, why do you have my workout clothing?"

Minako viewed her twin with no small amount of suspicion as he presented her with her runner's jacket and long bike shorts.

"They're… well _those_ two gave them to me. They said that they look like your normal gear, the jacket's been reinforced somehow without making it heavy"

Minako couldn't help it when she smashed her palm into her face, "_Those _two… Just give them to me, I'll go change"

…

When the twins arrived in the lobby shortly before the Dark Hour was set to begin, they joined the rest of the junior members of SEES who were all equipped with their combat gear.

"As I said earlier today" Mitsuo was handling the briefing for the night, "We've made it as far as we can in Tartarus for the time being. So, until the situation there changes, you four will be getting experienced patrolling Iwatodai"

_Running the beat, huh? Just like old times_

**Just like old times indeed, Mistress**

* * *

5/4 (Mo) _Paulownia Mall _(Early Evening)

* * *

_Alright… Part time worker needed, must be able to work during weekdays…_

Minako was currently reading the job listing section of Iwatodai's local newspaper, enjoying some of Chagall Café's coffee while doing so.

_Kurosawa said he'd hold onto the order for me until I managed to pay off the remainder. Hmm… But where can I find work around here?_

As Minako would soon find out, there was work to be done.

"Hamono-kun! Thank goodness you're here!"

Hamono grinned as he entered the back of Chagall Café to change into his work clothes, responding to one of his coworkers as he walked by, "Glad to be here. So, what happened that you needed me on my night off?"

"A few of the girls got sick at school today! I think they came down with Apathy Syndrom!"

Hamono restrained himself from making a face at the mention of the Shadow-caused disease, "That's not good. Do we have enough people for tonight?"

"I don't think so" Hamono's manage entered the conversation at this point, "We still need at least one more person to get by tonight"

Hamono exited the men's dressing room in his tuxedo, "Hmm… Let me see if I can't find anyone to work for tonight"

Entering the mostly empty café, Hamono immediately picked up on the distinctive head of blue hair siting at one of the tables.

When Minako was grabbed by the shoulder and forced to her feet by her twin with the only explanation of, "I'm sorry, Mina. But I'm kidnapping you for the night" she resigned herself to her fate with only a sigh. She should have never wished for work.

* * *

5/5 (Tu) _Gekkoukan High School _(After School)

* * *

"See you guys later!" Hamono smiled as he waved goodbye to a group of his classmates. Classes had ended for the day, and the twins were at their shoe lockers gathering their things.

Minako opened her locker and sighed when several letters fell out, all of them having a short note on them requesting that she give them to her brother.

"Hey, Hamo. You've got mail"

Minako barely looked back after she shoved the pile of letters into her brother's hands. Reaching back into her locker for her shoes, Minako pulled them out to find a letter that had been taped against the top of one of them. Clearly, the writer had meant for her specifically to read it.

Hamono immediately noticed when Minako opened a letter and, after shortly reading it, folded it back up and slid it into her messenger bag.

"Anything bad?" Was his first question.

Minako just shook her head, "No, just wasn't expecting to get something after only being here for only a month or so"

"Can you think of any reason you're getting hate-mail this early on?"

Minako tapped her shoes as she thought it over, "… I can think of four"

* * *

**A/N: Alright, now that that monster of a chapter is done, we can start to move onto more of the story. So next chapter, be ready for the anticipated Priestess Battle. However, I'm not sure when I'll be able to post that chapter. College is coming to a close for me for this year, so that means that I'm slightly swamped by work. I have no idea when the next chapter comes out, but I'll see what I can do with what free time I've got.**


	13. Chapter 13: May 6 to May 9th Priestess

**A/N: **** IMPORTANT PLEASE READ BEFORE READING CHAPTER ******

**Okay, thank you for reading this as it is very important to not be confused from this point on wards. There has been an official name change with among the members of SEES; Mitiro's to be exact. Now, the reason for this change is this: the 'ti' syllable in Mitiro's name isn't actually a syllable in the Japanese language. Major thanks to ****_Yorukokubo no Mai_ who pointed that out to and who has been helping me with a few of the other names for characters that have yet to appear. Anyways, from here on (I've also gone back and changed it in previous chapters) Mitiro's name is Mitsuo.**

**Second, I've decided to bump the rating back down from M to T (where it was originally). While The Journey of Two will be toeing the line in some future chapters, I've got no plans for a detailed sex scene so I don't think that I need to give myself a M rating. I will put a violence/language/gore warning in the summary because this story has a good bit of that.**

**Also, please note that the Priestess Full Moon takes up ~8,000 words of this ~9,000 word chapter. I hope you like fighting on monorails.**

**Reviews:**

**GameLord 4BritishBronies: Lover's Arcana and Yakushima are already planned out and will be fun to write. Kyoto though... I'm not sure what I'll be doing for that yet, we'll just have to wait and see.**

**rebfan90: The Velvet Room twins will be making more appearances later on, so that's a thing.**

* * *

5/6 (We) _Iwatodai Shrine_

* * *

Hamono and Minako had run into each other during their track practices, Minako joining Yuko as she stopped by to get more athletic tape only to find a near empty practice composed of Rio, Hamono, and a few less enthusiastic participants.

Things had gone south when Yuko mentioned that the majority of the sprinters had skipped practice in favor of going out on a group date. Rio had promptly exploded, resulting in the remaining members sans Hamono walking out of the practice.

"Man…" Hamono scratched his head, just thinking about that situation make his limbs ache, "I wish Rio didn't work me to the bone like that"

Minako nodded in response as she chewed on her snack. Stopping by the somewhat suspicious Tayokai stand in the strip mall after getting off monorail, the twins had purchased their boxes of octopus and drinks of choice before continuing on their way.

"Mina-nee?" The twins turned as they approached the Naganaki Shrine, Minako instantly recognizing Maiko as she was about to enter said shrine, "Mina-nee!"

Her face brightened considerably at the sight of the blunette, Minako returned the smile somewhat, "Hey there, Maiko-chan. Planning on playing at the shrine again?"

"Yep" Maiko brightened further, but dimmed slightly after realizing that they weren't alone, "…oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were on a date…"

Minako couldn't help but snicker at the girl's comment, "Hate to disappoint, but" she jerked her thumb in Hamono's direction, "this here's my twin brother"

Hamono approached Maiko and smiled at her, "Nice to meet you, Maiko-chan! I'm Hamono"

Maiko looked between the two of them, "You two can't be twins, you don't look anything alike"

"We get that a lot" Hamono chuckled, "We are twins though, believe it or not"

Maiko's further comment was interrupted by her stomach loudly growling. She blushed slightly as she watched the twins grin at her.

"Any interest in octopus?" Hamono asked as he sat down on a bench and motioned for Maiko to join him.

Maiko sat down between the twins before responding, "It's my favorite!"

The three ate in companionable silence, only broken when Maiko asked Minako for a bit of her Mad Bull; a drink that Minako willingly handed over after tasting a small sip of the potent beverage.

"Oh!" Maiko suddenly jumped up in realization, "I've got to get home" she turned back to the twins, "I'll see you later, Mina-nee and Hamo-nii!"

The twins watched as Maiko walked down the sidewalk and disappeared down a side street.

"Soo…" Hamono turned to his twin with an evil grin in his eye, "Mind explaining that to me, _Mina-nee~_?"

Minako rolled her eyes and shoved the brunette, "Well, _Hamo-nii_, while you were too busy being in a coma, I ran into her while during a workout session"

"I'd heard that someone was seen playing with her from a rumor at school, but to think it was you…" Hamono suddenly moved over and lifted his twin off the bench, "You've gone full Dere-mode! You're so adorable~!"

Minako squirmed as she tried to wiggle out of her brother's grip, "Hamo, please stop"

Hamono back away, eyes wide, "She's gotten you to use manners as well!? That's it, we're coming back to play with Maiko-chan".

* * *

5/9 (Sa) _Gekkoukan High School_

* * *

The familiar seed of unease that Minako had woken up to that morning stuck with her from the moment she entered the school to the moment classes ended. It was still there, digging away in the back of her mind as she opened her shoe locker and immediately began to dig through the pile of 'junk mail' that had accumulated. Gripping the sorted love letters in one hand, Minako walked up to her twin and shoved them into his hands, uncaring of the conversation she was having with Yutono at the moment.

Returning to her locker, Minako grabbed the singular envelope that was again meant for her to read and opened it.

_Hmm… 'Mojo'? That's a new one._

Minako looked up from the letter and noticed an average looking girl unsubtlety watching her read it. After realizing she'd been noticed, the girl took off down the crowded hallway.

**Looks like they've yet to organize into anything substantial, Mistress.**

_That's simply a matter of 'when' though rather than 'if'._

Letting a not-so-friendly smile grace her lips, Minako turned and walked out the front doors.

Finishing his conversation with Hamono, Yutono had noticed Minako leaving with a rather menacing grin on her face.

"Uhh…" Yutono wasn't exactly so sure how to phrase his question to the male twin as he was reading his small pile of love letters, "Have you noticed Minako 'smiling' lately?"

Hamono's head immediately jerked up, "Mina's smiling? Where?"

"Not smiling" Yutono made sure to add air quotes as he continued, "'Smiling'. Like the 'I'm going to kill you in a very slow way' kind of smile"

"Oh" Hamono trailed off and Yutono wasn't exactly sure what to make of his friend's expression, "That's something that's a bit complicated. And you getting involved in it will probably just make it worse. My experience is just to let things pan out until Mina says she needs a hand".

"I'm just concerned" Yutono continued, "I've seen her have that look while we're in… you know" He made sure to lower his voice slightly.

Hamono just waved it off, however, "I know, I've seen it too. Just trust me, you don't want to get involved when Mina's like that".

* * *

_Iwatodai Dormitory_ (Just before the Dark Hour)

* * *

"Still at it, huh?"

Mitsuo looked up from his preparations at the massive control terminal on the 4th floor of the dorm. He'd been planning on having another sweep of the city but in order to do that he needed to run multiple tests and diagnostics beforehand to ensure accurate and reliable readings.

Still, the constant late nights were wearing down on the heir and, since they were alone, he could lower his guard a bit around his silver-haired friend, "Yes, the Shadows aren't stopping anytime soon so I can't either. The numbers of cases of Apathy Syndrome have arisen dramatically lately and are holding. There has to be some sort of cause linked to the Dark Hour, and I need to find it"

"Well" Akiri eased into a stool next to her dorm mate, "You don't need to do everything yourself, I'm here to help. Not to mention some of the more 'interesting' help we've gotten lately"

"The Aristatos" Mitsuo closed his eyes as he relaxed slightly, "On one hand, there's the one that can change his Persona at will during battle…"

The lounge was enveloped in green moonlight as the Dark Hour took over.

"… and on the other is a combat veteran with a completely different class of Persona than we knew of" Akiri finished the observation with a grin.

Mitsuo was about to continue the conversation when the monitor lit up, an alert flashing brightly over Iwatodai Station, "Hit the alarm, it's a big one"

* * *

_Iwatodai Station_ (Dark Hour

* * *

The four junior members of SEES slowly approached the monorail station they were all so familiar with from their near-daily usage of it.

"The full moon sure looks weird during the Dark Hour" Yutono verbally announced his observation, adjusting the strap that held his quiver against his back with his free hand as they arrived at the station's steps.

Hamono sat down on the steps and stared up at said moon. It appeared to be almost twice as large as it should have been and it produced an ethereal glow that he couldn't decide was either beautiful or sinister.

Minako stopped in front of her twin and observed their surroundings. She could almost feel the nerves in her body as they twitched in reaction to a non-existent threat.

_Something's… off. I just can't put my finger on it._

**I feel it too, Mistress. I can't say exactly where I'm sensing it coming from, but you should be careful on the monorail.**

"Oi! Minako-kun!" Jackie waved to blunette over to where she was sitting on the steps with her two-handed katana lying across her lap, "What's up with your get-up?"

Minako simply raised an eyebrow at the question; she might have been the only one not wearing their winter uniform but that didn't mean there was anything wrong with wearing her _enhanced _workout gear on their mission.

"Well" Jackie scratched her chin, "I'm just wondering where you got those clothes from. I've never seen you wear them before"

"They're my usual workout gear" Minako quietly responded, "I usually workout early on Sunday mornings, but I tend to get back somewhat late so I'm not sure why you've never seen them before"

"Where is he?" Yutono asked no one in particular, impatiently taping his foot against the ground as he tried to not look interested in the girl's conversation.

The distant sound of an engine interrupted whatever Hamono was about to say.

-After a few short seconds, Mitsuo arrived and brought his motorcycle to a halt; kicking the bike's stand into position to prop it up before dismounting.

Mitsuo removed his helmet and shook out his medium length red hair back to its usual position over his right eye before addressing the juniors, "Good to see you all made it. For this operation, I'll be conducting support from here. Other than that, our mission parameters are the same as we went over back at the dorm. The target is somewhere on the monorail which is just barely outside of the station so you'll have to walk on the tracks to reach it"

"Got it" Hamono smiled as he replied; he couldn't help but feel somewhat giddy in anticipation of what was his first major operation as the field leader.

"Wait a minute!" Jackie, on the other hand, already had doubts about the mission, "You want us to walk _on the tracks_!? Are you crazy or something?"

Yutono sighed in exasperation, "Jackie, nothing electrical works during the Dark Hour. How have you not noticed that?"

"Well, what about sempai's bike?"

The juniors' eyes all focused on Mitsuo who appeared unfazed by the attention as he replied, "It's special"

Not completely satisfied with the answer, the juniors still grouped up, hopped the turnstiles, and approached the platform after Hamono rallied the team. The monorail's closest car was only about ten feet from the platform; it had evidentially just left the station when the Dark Hour hit. Jackie led the team, Hamono and Yutono following her lead as she dropped down onto the tracks and began to approach the train.

"Hey, Hamo" Hamono and Yutono both turned at the sound of Minako's voice, "Go on ahead of me, I need to say something to sempai"

Without waiting for a response, Minako turned around and left the platform.

Hamono just shrugged at his brunette friend and they both continued to down the tracks to where Jackie was waiting for them.

"Alright you two" Hamono caught Jackie by the collar before she could climb up the ladder, "We'll keep up the same formation that we've had in Tartarus: Jackie you're up front, I'll take the middle, and Mina will join Yutono on the rear guard when she catches up to us"

The two other juniors nodded and Jackie was the first to begin climbing up the ladder. About halfway up, Jackie stopped and looked down at the two male juniors with a grin on her face, "Ohh… Boys, you'd better not let me catch you looking up my skirt~"

Yutono just scoffed, "You got nothing _to_ look at, Jackie". The brunette had clearly dealt with his classmate's antics before.

Hamono just laughed before climbing up the ladder himself when Jackie made it inside.

Meanwhile, Minako just reached the bottom of the station's steps where Mitsuo was preparing to summon his Persona to begin supporting the field team.

"Aristato-san?" Mitsuo was clearly confused as to why the bluenette was back here again, "Are you not joining the field team?"

Minako scanned the streets of Iwatodai again before responding, "No I'm going to catch up to them. I just…" She looked over the long shadows cast by the Dark Hour as she continued, "Every instinct of mine is telling me something is wrong. And in my experience, you either learn to trust your gut or you get really good at healing wounds"

Minako couldn't help the grim thought that she'd learned both from crossing her mind, "Look sempai, just keep an eye out for yourself out here. Maybe you should have brought along Akiri for the protection"

Mitsuo just laughed in response, "Ah, I see. Don't worry about me, Aristato-san. Catch up with others"

Minako would have rebuked had something _not_ caused a knot to form in her stomach and the blood to drain out of her face.

_The doors to the monorail… they were open…_

"Shit" Minako swore as she sprinted up the stairs to the station; offering her sempai no reason for her reaction. Minako didn't bother using her hands and jumped right over the turnstiles as Mitsuo activated the communications network.

"_Hey, isn't something off?" _Yutono's distinctly nervous voice sounded in Minako's headset.

"_Yeah, you're right. Why are all the doors open if we're not actually at the station?"_

Right after Jackie pointed out that glaring detail, Hamono rushed to the nearest exit only to stumble backwards as every door on the monorail slammed shut.

Minako took the last step of stairs in two bounds as she arrived on the platform. The monorail's doors all slammed shut and Minako sprinted even harder down the platform as the train groaned and began to accelerate. Reaching the end of the platform, Minako pumped her black aura into her legs as she jumped and leaped off the top of one of the ticket vendors. Throwing herself to the right allowed her to wall-run along an advertisement billboard and Minako flung herself onto the top of the moving monorail.

Low to the roof, Minako dug her hands and feet in as she felt the slipstream begin to slightly pull against her. Thanking her improbable foresight on dressing in clothing that didn't get caught in the wind, Minako silently cursed as she realized just how far to shit the operation had gone already.

* * *

"Shit… Shit, shit, shit, shit"

Despite his usual tendency of not cursing, Hamono couldn't help the string of expletives that easily flew out of his mouth. Backing away from the monorail's doors, he turned back to face the two fellow juniors that had made it onto the train with him before it started moving.

"N-now what?" Yutono's nervous question was rather justified; they were on a vehicle that for all reason should _not_ have been moving during this time, "Isn't there a way to manually open the doors?"

Hamono schooled his features before responding, "This really doesn't change anything; the Shadow is still on the monorail. We're just trapped in here with it now"

"_Aristato-san is right" _The juniors paused as Mitsuo's voiced came from their earpieces, _"I can still detect the Shadow onboard. It's located inside the foremost car and, as such, it's probably controlling the entire monorail. Takeba-san, the manual emergency exits were removed after an incident involving students using them to get off the monorail illegally a few years ago. Please hurry; you only have seven minutes until you hit the monorail in front of you"_ (A/N)

"Got it, sempai" Hamono responded for the field team, before turning back to them, "Jackie, you're on point. We don't have the luxury of having Mina at the rearguard so Yutono you need to watch our backs"

The juniors nodded in acknowledgement, drawing their weapons and moving up to the next car.

* * *

Minako grabbed onto the small pieces of sticking from the roof of the monorail as it rounded a relatively sharp curve within Iwatodai proper, resisting damning herself for just how stupid of an idea it was to jump on top of the monorail.

**When I said, 'you should be careful on the monorail' I did not mean, 'you should be careful **_**on**__**top of**_** the monorail'.**

_Yeah, yeah. Just shut up and focus entirely on my footwork. I can take care of any Shadows that show up, but I can't do that if I fall off first._

After a moment of mental adjustment, Thanatos took complete control of Minako's lower body. Aside from the unnerving feeling of having her legs moving without her intent, Minako immediately felt herself adjust to the slick surface of the monorail's roof. Summoning her sword with ease, Minako drew it and Thanatos seamlessly moved her forward.

From the car in front of her, black blobs formed and arose into the forms of multiple Shadows. When the first Shadow turned to her and promptly flung itself at her, its momentum increased by the slipstream, Minako let it impale itself down to the hilt before dismissively flicking it off the side. The second Shadow met a similar fate when she backhanded it straight off the roof. Working in tandem, Minako and Thanatos carved through the remaining Shadows before jumping onto the next car.

* * *

"Gotta say, it doesn't look like there's any Shadows here"

Jackie off-handedly commented as she led the group through the third car. The team hadn't encountered a single Shadow so far, despite the heavy atmosphere created by an out-of-control monorail speeding through a time paradox.

"Jackie, I swear-"

Yutono's harsh response was cut-off by a Shadow dropping down from the ceiling and landing straight on Jackie's back.

Hamono reached the fastest out of the three, "Jackie-chan! Don't move!" Drawing his scimitar back, Hamono lunged forward to skewer the Tiara-type Shadow; only to pull the cut to avoid Jackie as she twisted around. The Shadow bounced off the floor before quickly darting away and slamming the door behind it.

"The hell?" Hamono ignored his small amount of anger at Jackie's blatant refusal to follow orders in favor of commenting on the Shadow's strange behavior.

When Jackie moved to follow the Shadow, however, Hamono had no issue grabbing her by the collar to hold her in place.

"Oi! We gotta follow that Shadow! We can't let it get away!" Jackie fixed the red-eyed leader with a glare; one that Hamono was completely unaffected by.

"_Wait; something's not right" _Mitsuo sounded more concerned than he normally would allow himself, _"That Shadow was acting strange, and I'm getting a strange reading from all over the monorail"_

"We need to be careful" Hamono responded evenly, clearly directing his words at the squirming swordswoman he was holding back.

"_I agree, we don't know why the Shadows are acting that way"_

Hamono was surprised when Jackie harshly threw his arm off of her, "Fine! We clearly don't have the time to be careful so if neither of _pansies _have the balls to do anything, I'll just clear this entire damn monorail myself! Try not to die twiddling your thumbs, _Leader!_"

Jackie ran down and threw open the door to the next car while Hamono could only stand frozen at the sudden acidity of his friend's words. It only lasted a second as his mind caught up to him, "Wait! Jackie-chan!"

As Hamono sprinted up to the door that led to the next car long, white, bandage-like appendages wrapped around the door's frame; barring it from the two brunettes. He grabbed them, desperately attempting to rip them off to no avail.

"Ah! Shadows!" Yutono's unsteady voice grabbed Hamono's attention back to the small group of Shadows slowly forming out of the walls. Blood red eyes narrowed as Hamono walked back to where Yutono was about to draw his bow, drawing his Evoker.

"Yutono" Said brunette nearly jumped at the sudden sharpness of tone from the squad's leader, "please move out of the way".

When SEES' resident archer stepped behind him, Hamono pressed his Evoker to his forehead and spat out his command.

"Jack Frost; Mabufu"

The effect was almost immediate as the white, blue-hatted fairy raised a small gloved hand. Powered by Hamono's anger, ice enveloped the far half of the carriage and froze every Shadow solid. With deceptive calm, the field leader turned back to the barred door, "Yutono, watch my back for a bit. I'll get the door open"

As Yutono drew an arrow, he watched as half the Shadows perished and the other half slowly began to break out of their icy prisons. Unsheathing his scimitar, Hamono wedged the sword at the top of the door and pulled down with both hands. The top-most band across the door slowly gave away before snapping off completely. All forward momentum stopped when multiple bands covered the next part of the door.

"Hamono…" Yutono could feel his nerves causing his hand to shake against the bowstring as the cracks in the small iceberg in front of him grew even larger, "hurry it up, please".

Not bothering to respond to his squad mate, Hamono grabbed the strange appendages in his hands once again; not to attempt to yank them, but to simply feel them. They were strange; unusually smooth for a solid object and very slightly… _cool_.

Going by his gut, Hamono wasted no time switching his Persona back to Orpheus before channeling an Agi down his scimitar. The bladed edge of the weapon glowed red-hot and a few flames licked up to the flat of the sword. Pulling down was several times easier than before and the door was freed in one smooth cut.

"Yutono!" Hamono nearly took the door off its rails as he flung it open, "Let's go!"

As Yutono ran through the open door, Hamono slammed it shut and, using a long piece of the strange fabric he grabbed off the floor before it completely burned, tied the handle of the door to another handle on the frame.

The remaining Shadows within the car finally broke out of the ice and began to throw themselves against the sliding door. The door held, for the moment.

Hamono made sure the door would hold for at least a short while before turning and continuing down the monorail, his voice still deceptively even, "Now, let's find Jackie"

* * *

About to make her way over to the next car, Minako sheathed her sword in favor of aiding Thanatos in keeping her balance. The monorail was almost out of Iwatodai proper and she could only hope that her twin figured out a way to stop the train in time.

The sound of several windows shattering drew her out of her thoughts and Minako looked to see several Shadows breaking out of the car directly in front of her and crawl/float towards her. What piqued her curiosity was that some of the Shadows appeared to have been frozen.

**Mistress, get down!**

Trusting her mentor's judgment, Minako dropped down into the gap between the two cars. Barely gripping the edge, she kept herself from certain death by jamming her feet against both cars.

It was only her long experience with close-quarters combat with Shadows that kept Minako from flinching when the Shadows screamed as they were eviscerated by the force of hitting the fenced in part of the monorail track that led the monorail out onto Iwatodai's bay. The Shadows' ichor-like guts splattered over the top of the car, nearly completely covering it. The black substance dripped down the sides of the car Minako was desperately trying to stay gripped onto. She could only wait for the fenced in section of track to pass as her grip slowly slipped and her foot struggled to maintain pressure against the slick surface. Drawing on Thanatos' strength, Minako twisted in place and managed to pull herself up onto the previous car just as the monorail exited the fenced in track to reach the track over the water. Wiping off the still-dissolving ichor from her arms, Minako took a moment to note how far they had until they reached Port Island Station.

She didn't need Thanatos to adjust her vision to see the next monorail just barely outside of the Port Island Station. They had maybe five minutes until they crashed.

Minako would have let out an expletive, had every instinct in her not screamed at her to pay attention to the bay just to the right of her. A patch of water bubbled, before it exploded and a massive silver blur rose from the depths. It easily towered over the monorail despite the raised track, pausing for a moment before unleashing a gut-wrenching screech. Minako could feel the monorail vibrate in reaction to the sound waves crashing into it, but she stood and observed the creature.

"Well… aren't you just adorable?"

"_Aristato-san?" _Mitsuo's confused voice just barely rose above the wind howling in Minako's ear, _"I'm getting a strange reading outside the monorail; what's going on out there?"_

Minako casually let out a sigh before responding, "Kirijo-sempai, were you aware that a basilisk lived under Iwatodai's bay?"

* * *

Hamono opened the door to the next monorail car and ushered Yutono in behind him before taking in the scene before him. Shadow ichor covered parts of the interior and the floor was burned in several places; Jackie had been through here and it looked like she was still going strong.

"Well, looks like she's still ahead of us" Yutono broke the silence.

Hamono nodded in response, "Right, we need to get to the next car; I don't think we have much time left"

Almost in response to Hamono's comment, an unearthly screech shook the monorail and some of the windows showed signs of cracking from the sheer force of the sound.

The two brunettes needed no further encouragement as they ran for the far end of the car. When a Shadow that Jackie hadn't finished off lunged from Hamono's left, he didn't bother drawing his sword. Remembering how he finished off the Hand Guardian, Hamono felt as Orpheus' left arm formed around his own and he punched through the Shadow in retaliation.

Not giving Yutono a chance to question his actions, Hamono opened the next door and kept himself from shouting at Jackie. She was up to her neck in Shadows, wildly swinging her sword in a fashion more akin to a baseball bat than anything else.

"Hermes!" Jackie grinned as Hermes appeared behind her and blasted the Shadows in front of her with a large fireball. The fire remained and nothing moved within it.

Jackie moved to continue on her way when a Maya in its dying throes lunged at her and wrapped itself around her neck. She stumbled back as the air in her lungs dwindled; a scale-like Shadow looming ominously over her.

Hamono sprinted the remain distance when he saw the Shadow preparing a spell to finish Jackie off, ripping the Maya from her neck with his left, Orpheus-augmented hand while drawing his scimitar with his right. The Shadow canceled casting its spell and awkwardly floated out of the way of Hamono's first rising slash.

Not wasting momentum, Hamono crushed the Maya in his left hand as he continued his slash; gripping his blade in both hands as it rose above his head. Quickly switching to Omoikane, Hamono dragged his scimitar against the monorail's floor as he rushed the Shadow. Sparks flew from the contact and from the Zio he was channeling down the blade, distracting the Shadow long enough for Hamono's attack to hit. The Shadow was nearly cut in half immediately before hitting the ceiling and promptly exploding.

Under a light shower of ichor and sparks, Hamono flicked his blade clean before turning to where Jackie was still gasping on the floor. Returning the sword to its place on his back, Hamono switched to Pixie as he grabbed Jackie and hauled her to her feet.

Jackie wasn't surprised when Hamono pulled her off the floor, but she was surprised when she felt his grip digging into her shoulders. Hamono's blood red eyes were almost glowing in anger as he channeled Dia through his arms to heal any injuries Jackie might have sustained.

While Hamono chose to remain silent, Jackie didn't, "Waa… The hell do you think you're doing!?"

"'The hell do you think you're doing!?'" Yutono gritted his teeth, "What in the world are _you_ talking about? _He _just saved your stupid life!"

"I-I had it under control!" Jackie tried to wiggle her way out of Hamono's grip again, but his red eyes pinned her in place.

Hamono was sorely tempted to throw Jackie to the floor and give her tongue lashing that she deserved, but the knowledge that the swordswoman in his hands wasn't his twin caused him to just release his grip.

"Sempai" Hamono spoke into his earpiece, "Just how much time do we have left?"

"_You all have about three minutes until impact. You're almost at the front car; keep going"_

"Got it" Hamono turned to face his finally-reunited field team, "We've got to get to the front car, and fast. I don't have any idea what is going to be waiting for us"

Jackie visibly rolled her eyes before responding, "Oh, so _now_ you want us to rush in? Some Lea-"

"_Hamo! Get everyone down, NOW!"_

* * *

Minako stood in place, staring at the enormous basilisk as the monorail passed its place in the bay. The basilisk seemed content to simply watch her back, just as still as the blunette.

_Shouldn't I be petrified now or something?_

**Direct eye contact with a basilisk should result in immediate death, mythological speaking. Of course, this whole Personae and Shadows business seems to dilute their respective legends slightly.**

_So Hamono isn't going to find his wife in that tower? And Yutono's mom wasn't raped by Zeus and turned into a cow? And Jackie doesn't secretly hate us?_

**Hopefully for the first one, that could be interpreted in multiple ways for the second, and she probably does for the last.**

Minako snickered slightly at Thanatos' comments, noting that the basilisk was at its original location; one that was getting further and further from them.

_I guess the basilisk doesn't want to play? Whatever, we've got other problems to worry about._

Minako and Thanatos ran carefully to the end of the car and jumped over to the next one. Minako continued on when no Shadows appeared to fight her.

**We should try talking to that basilisk.**

Minako skidded to a stop as she contemplated Thanatos' bizarre suggestion.

_It kind of worked against the Reaper, so maybe? If it shows up again we can try_.

Minako kept moving and cleared another gap between two cars before the basilisk burst back out of the bay's waters alongside the monorail, easily keeping up with the speeding train.

Before she could react, Thanatos spoke, **"Hey! Snake-brain! Can you understand me? Or do I need to accent my 's' more?"**

The basilisk visibly paused, turned to Minako, and brought its head within a few feet of the monorail. Behind the large mask covering its face, Minako could see its glowing yellow eyes narrowing in anger. She was simply confused when it did nothing beyond backing up and submerging into the water again.

**Is… that a no?**

Minako was about to voice her confusion as well when the basilisk's tail rose out of the water.

Steel-gray eyes widened in surprise when she realized what the basilisk was planning on doing.

It was going to swipe her right off the top of the monorail; it wouldn't even need to hit her, the massive dispersion of air caused by the appendage passing by her would be enough to rip her off her feet despite Thanatos' aid. The tail leveled itself parallel to the roof several cars in front of Minako's before beginning its deadly path.

Gears spinning, Minako unmuted her mic and screamed into it, "Hamo! Get everyone down, NOW!"

The tail swept overhead as Minako slid off the side of the monorail. Tucking her head into her stomach and pulling her knees to her chin, Minako prepared herself to ride out the maelstrom.

* * *

Instantly recognizing the panicked tone in her voice, Hamono immediately acted on his twins warning as he grabbed the two other juniors, threw them on the floor, and jumped on top of them.

The sound of _something_ rushing overhead was the prerequisite to the whirlwind that tore through the monorail, breaking most of the glass and sweeping it along in a deadly swarm of small razor sharp fragments. The dagger-like pieces bounced off the metal interior of the monorail as the car shook from the force of the winds, creating a horrid shrieking noise as they flew through the air.

Yutono forced himself farther into the corner next to the door to the next car that Hamono had shoved him into alongside Jackie. He slowly opened his eyes as the winds and glass finally subsided, gasping at what he saw.

Hamono loomed over the other two juniors, the majority of his body covered in Orpheus' metal exoskeleton; his normally blood-red eyes actually glowing bright red. The brunette stood back up fully and dismissed Orpheus' body from his own, making sure not to cut himself as the glass that embedded itself into the metal fell to the ground in one wave. Dusting himself off, he offered both of his hands to his fellow squad mates; hands they both willingly accepted.

_Thanks Orpheus._

**I… I-I apologize… I must rest…**

Hamono mentally switched over to Jack Frost as Orpheus did whatever the Persona equivalent of passing out was.

"Alright" Hamono turned back to his friends and surprised them as he smiled at them, "We've got a Shadow to kill, don't we?"

Yutono and Jackie collected their gear that had been hastily thrown to the ground before following their re-affirmed leader out to the next car.

* * *

Minako focused her mind as much as it could handle; all feeling in her legs vanishing as the world slowed down. The maelstrom of wind and glass slammed into her in slow motion and as the window directly next to her exploded, Minako immediately reached out and gripped the frame in one hand as tightly as she could.

Her body flailed around like a ragdoll as she went horizontal; time returning to normal as Minako regained control of her legs. Shards of glass scrapped past, cutting open the back of her outstretched hand and the open areas of her face that she couldn't cover. Gritting her teeth, Minako held fast despite the twisting nearly making her shoulder pop out of its socket.

After several seconds, Minako's body lowered itself into an angle more natural to holding onto the side of a monorail. Reaching out with her other hand, Minako grabbed another part of the window frame before finding her footing. Climbing and pushing herself back on top quickly, Thanatos quickly healed the thin cuts from the glass as Minako looked around for the basilisk; it appeared to have gone back underwater for the moment.

_Thanatos… I'm revoking all of your verbal speaking privileges until I say so._

…

Minako brushed off the remaining glass from her jacket, wincing slightly when she pulled three shards of glass from her right forearm. Examining the wounds to make sure that Thanatos would be able to properly heal them without her help, Minako couldn't help but raise a brow at what was happening. The tears in the jacket were slowly meshing themselves back together, completely repairing the arm while the bloodstains slowly faded from the fabric.

_Is this why Hamo was so intent on me wearing the gear he got from the Velvet Room?_

**No idea, I don't think I've ever seen fabric act like that before Mistress.**

_I… don't think this is of this world…_

Minako had to repress the involuntary shudder at that thought. She was almost thankful when the basilisk burst forth once again from the bay and let loose another ear-piercing shriek for distracting her from her thoughts.

"Alright big guy" Minako smiled as she drew her sword, "Let's see how well those scales protect you from blades".

"_Mina…"_ Hamono's strained voice entered the blunette's ear via her earpiece, _"You mind explaining to me why Mitsuo-sempai just claimed that you're currently on top of the monorail fighting a basilisk?"_

Minako's smile widened, "Oh, you know me; I just want to see what the best way to fillet a snake is. Of course, the only way to get free food to cook is to just go out and _kill it yourself_"

Hamono let out an exasperated sigh that Minako could hear through her ear piece before seemingly giving up and cutting his mic. Re-muting her mic, Minako watched as the basilisk's tail arose and swung in an arc to crush her.

Centering herself, Minako gripped her katana in one hand and pulled her sheath from its place on her hip forming a cross guard above her. Right before the tail slammed into her, the blunette concentrated her black aura into her arms' and legs' muscles.

Minako couldn't help the gasp that escaped her lips as she felt the entire weight of the basilisk's tail nearly shatter her guard; the monorail below her groaned from the strain of the energy transfer as her knees threatened to buckle.

The screaming of steel against scales increased as the monorail gradually moved away from the basilisk. Minako could feel the pressure lessen and the blunette managed to throw the tail off her guard. The tail brushed against the outside of the overpass as it slammed back into the water.

Minako almost let go of her sword and sheath as her arms burned from the over-exertion.

_We're lucky we're on a moving platform; that would have crushed me otherwise._

**I'd advise against blocking another attack like that; your body can't handle my power for more than short bursts like that.**

The blunette didn't respond to Thanatos' advice, preferring to keep her eyes on the water while she rode out the red-hot pain flowing through her limbs. The pain finally subsided as the basilisk reappeared on the opposite side of the monorail.

Minako spun around in time to see the scaled serpent finish gathering what appeared to be snow in its mouth. Throwing its head back briefly, the basilisk spat out icy-cold vapor in a wide stream over the top of the monorail.

With nowhere to dodge, Minako grit her teeth and fell into a crouch as the unsettling feeling of her legs being stuck in place from the subzero vapor sunk into her bare skin. Before she could break free, the basilisk opened its mouth again and unleashed a small gale upon the blunette.

_If this serpent wasn't too busy trying to kill me I'd probably thank it._

Thanatos was given no chance to respond as the basilisk roared again, sweeping over the monorail and ripping Minako out of thfe ice with its mouth. Minako gripped her katana as hard as she could in her right hand, keeping it wedged and preventing the basilisk from biting through her outstretched right arm as her feet dangled uselessly in the open air. Attempting to find a grip with her left hand, the blunette almost wished she hadn't pulled herself steady and into the view of the scaled serpent's large, razor sharp teeth.

The basilisk rose up slightly before slamming Minako back-first against the roof of the monorail. Unable to make a sound as all the air in her lungs was forced out of them in one massive blow, Minako lost her grip on her sword and bounced further down the car she was on. Still recovering from the hit, the blunette absentmindedly grabbed an extended piece of metal jutting out of the roof.

Shock jolted her out of her haze as Minako realized that she was barely hanging onto the very back edge of the last car on the monorail.

* * *

"_Oh, you know me; I just want to see what the best way to fillet a snake is. Of course, the only way to get free food to cook is to just go out and kill it yourself"_

Hamono released a deep sigh as he listened to his twin's response. The faint click made him realize that Minako had re-muted her mic and was probably going back to nearly killing herself in combat.

"Is she going to be alright up there?" Hamono turned back to his team's archer at his question.

Yutono's concern was very evidentially plastered on his face when the red-eyed leader responded, "Probably; don't be surprised if I punch her after all this is said and done though"

"_Heads up" _SEES's field team stopped at their sempai's words, _"The next room contains the source of that unusual signal I've been getting. Be prepared for a strong Shadow and please note you've got about two minutes until impact"_

"No time to waste" Hamono briskly walked up to the door to the train's first car, "Let's go"

The three juniors piled into the car, only to stop in place at what awaited them.

A half-black, half-white woman barred their way, her legs spread in a way that made even Jackie sputter for a moment. A large pink mask covering her face cemented her identity as a Shadow and the large Roman numeral for two denoted her as a Priestess. The long white appendages that barred Hamono and Yutono before were finally revealed to be the woman's hair. The Shadow didn't waste time as it chuckled menacingly at them before forming a small blizzard in front of herself.

"SCATTER" Hamono shouted out his order as he dove behind a seat. Jackie and Yutono followed suit, finding cover as the blizzard was unleashed and barreled down the car. The monorail shook from the force of the blast and the majority of the windows in the cabin cracked.

Hamono mentally switched to Jack Frost and Jackie wasted no time bolting up from her cover, sword in one hand and Evoker against her temple in the other.

"Hermes!" The sleek metal Persona flew straight at the Shadow, dodging the first few swipes of hair before attempting to cut into the Priestess' flesh with a sharp wing. Several lengths of hair barred the way and Hermes quickly found itself being wrapped in the cloth-like substance. The Persona shattered from the damage and Jackie suddenly found herself in the open and out of breath.

Hamono immediately ran forward to bail out his fellow sword-user…

"Hamono, get down!"

… only to slide to his knees halfway there as Yutono unleashed a torrent of arrows one after the other at the Shadow. The Priestess let out a scream as the bolts struck, several impaling themselves into her torso and one hit the base of her neck. In retaliation, another small blizzard began to form. Drawing his Evoker in one hand, Hamono pressed it against his forehead as he reached Jackie.

"Jack Frost!" The fairy appeared in a flurry of blue glass and hovered in front of his Summoner. Hamono urged Jackie to her feet as the blizzard was launched. The train car shook again as the icy blast hit Jack Frost, who was completely unaffected by the attack but couldn't block the force from dispersing beyond himself.

Hamono dully noted that even more cracks were appearing in the glass surrounding them as two minor Shadows appeared alongside the Priestess. Said Shadows went down almost immediately as two precise shots impaled them through their masks. Red eyes met unfocused brown eyes as Hamono realized that the combination of the danger of the fight and the danger of the monorail crashing had affected their medic the hardest, forcing him into an almost unresponsive state as he only saw targets in front of him.

"_You have ONE minute left! Please hurry!"_

Mitsuo's concerned voice snapped Hamono back into action as he focused on keeping Jack Frost on the field while reaching his fellow brunette. Out of the corner of his eye, the field leader noticed the Priestess going for another blizzard attack and he gripped the archer's shoulder and shook it hard.

Yutono's eyes rapidly blinked and focused on Hamono who he hadn't noticed run up to him.

"We need to kill this thing, _now_" Hamono placed heavy emphasis on the ending of his statement, bringing his two teammates into the open of the car, "I've got half an idea that might work, but I need you two to follow my lead".

With no time for questioning, the juniors stood in a triangle formation with Hamono at the point facing the Priestess; Yutono standing at the left and Jackie standing on the right. Jack Frost let out a happy laugh as another blizzard hit him head on and shook the car. Before the attack subsided, Hamono drew his Evoker and, without looking back, pointed it at Yutono's forehead. Jackie and Yutono hesitated briefly before drawing their Evokers, Yutono pointing his at Jackie and Jackie pointing hers at Hamono.

"On my mark" Hamono began shakily, the strain of having Jack Frost out for so long was begin to affect him, "we'll aim for just below the Shadow. Jackie, use a fire spell; Yutono, use a wind spell. Jack Frost! Sonic Punch!"

Jack Frost swung his fist around and launched a mini-haymaker at the Priestess. The punch hit several of Yutono's arrows and imbedded them further into its skin. The fairy Persona finally dissolved back into Hamono's mind as he tightened his grip on his Evoker.

"Ready? Mark!"

"Io!" "Hermes!" "Angel!"

The three Personae appeared above their Personae and spread their arms out in sync with each other. A small cyclone formed underneath the Priestess, blowing out the surrounding glass before combusting. The fire heated the glass shards to a white-hot level while the winds swept up the glass and eviscerated the Priestess. Glass torn open the Shadow's skin as the fire burned the exposed flesh. The Priestess let out a pain-filled scream as it raised it arm in one final effort to attack; a useless effort as a relatively large shard of glass cut through the arm cleanly. The Shadow dissolved in on itself as it sunk further into the ground, the fire cyclone dying down and dispersing completely.

The juniors let out a collective sigh of relief, only to relapse into panic as they realized that the train wasn't stopping. Hamono ran to the controls in the conductor's cabin of the monorail, quickly laying eyes on the emergency brake. He reached for the lever, only to hesitate.

"_You have thirty seconds until collision, what are you waiting for?"_

"Mina…" Hamono responded to his sempai's inquiry, "Mina's still on the roof"

Before the redhead had a chance to respond, other voice crackled over the mic.

"_Do it"_

* * *

Minako groaned audibly as she pulled herself back onto the roof of the monorail. The basilisk wasn't far away, its mouth still propped open by her sword. The basilisk let out a throaty growl as it bit down hard, shattering the blade easily.

Pushing herself back onto her feet, Minako summoned her blade back to her side, only to return it to the sheath on her hip.

_Now, how do I do this without killing myself in the process?_

A small rising of flames coming from the front of the monorail caught the attention of both the blunette and the basilisk, as the both turned to face it. The basilisk dove back underwater and began to make its way up to the front of the train.

"_Mina… Mina's still on the roof"_

Unspoken, thoughts and an idea flew back and forth between Minako and Thanatos as she unmuted her mic.

"Do it"

Not waiting for a response, Minako began running down the length of the monorail, clearing the gap with an improved ease as Thanatos fully adjusted her movements to the movement of the train.

Minako reached the end of the second car as her headset crackled back to life.

"_Damn you, Mina!"_

She jumped onto the next car as the entire train groaned from the friction of the emergency brake being thrown at its current speed. Almost stumbling from the sudden change in velocity, Minako felt the entire world around her blur as her momentum sustained itself as the train rapidly decelerated. The edges of her vision went to oblivion as she focused everything she could spare into keeping on the roof of the train. Jumping from the end of the current car, Minako realized just how much she'd put into that jump as the train below her sped backwards making her clear an entire car in one leap.

**Look out, dead ahead!**

Letting Thanatos take control of running again, Minako looked to just beyond the monorail where the basilisk resurfaced and positioned itself right above the track. It opened its mouth and a much larger ball of ice began to form in front of its face. Minako pulled her sword, still in its sheath, from her hip and gripped the sheathing tightly in her left hand.

In the midst of another long leap, the blunette noted that the monorail had finally stopped and that her decent put her directly where she wanted to be for this stunt. Landing directly above the conductor's cabin, Minako put all her strength in one last jump as she pushed off directly at the basilisk.

Gripping her sword in her right hand but not drawing it, Minako flew at the basilisk as it was still gathering its strength. The icy ball was almost larger than the basilisk's mouth could accommodate and would be launched at any second.

Minako closed her eyes and let her vision vanish first.

Her sense of smell, taste, hearing, and the majority of her touch followed.

The control over her legs was the next to go, as Minako felt her heart beat still going strong through her near-dead body.

She could feel the power building within the sword at her side, strength unable to escape from being trapped within the sheathing. The power threatened to destroy her sword, shatter her sheath, and blow half her body from the other half but Minako focused what little of her conscious thought remained to keeping the power in check.

When the barest feeling of frost tickled her remaining sense of touch, Minako drew her blade and let it travel in a wide arc in front of her.

Her senses flooded back to her as the massive black aura that enveloped her blade surged outwards in a wave, cutting through the basilisk's large ball of ice and destroying it before slicing through the basilisk's head. There was a moment of pause, before the top half of the serpent's face slid slightly before exploding into a mess of black ichor. The bottom half, and the remainder of its body, leaned to the side and crashed back into Iwatodai's bay. It dissolved before it fully went under.

Minako would have laughed at how that stupid plan of hers worked, if she hadn't still been speeding forward in the air. The track curved off to the left in one final bend into Port Island Station so while Minako didn't have to worry about landing on concrete, she did have worry about crashing into the bloody water; arguably worse.

_Fuck_

* * *

"Damn you, Mina!"

Forget punching her, Hamono was contemplating the best way to break his twin's legs so she wouldn't be able to do something as stupid as tell him to hit the brakes on a train she was _on top of_ ever again.

The monorail groaned and shook as it rapidly decelerated, jerking the juniors off balance and onto the floor in the process.

The train finally stopped – Hamono noted that they still had a good bit of distance to the Port Island Station – and the three juniors managed to dust themselves off when Yutono froze, pointing out the front window.

A massive serpent loomed over them, a large ice ball already formed in its mouth and from the look in its thinly visible eyes it had every intention of sending it straight at them.

An audible thud resonated from directly above Yutono and suddenly, Minako was flying straight at the monster. Black aura seemingly condensed itself around her sword held next to her left side and drawing the blade in one smooth cut, the blunette cut the basilisk, and its attack, in half.

Whatever small bit of happiness Hamono felt at the sight of his sister saving them vanished when she flew over the edge of the track and into the water.

"Minako!" Yutono was the first to recover from his bruises and shock from recent events and threw open the side door. Sprinting over the tracks, Yutono peered over the edge of raised track into the bloody water. There was no sign of the blunette swordswoman and Yutono could feel the blood draining out of his face. Suddenly, a single hand gripped the railing directly next to the archer, nearly making him jump out of his shoes in fright.

Minako, covered in blood, pulled herself up and doubled-over the railing, coughing up blood as she rested against the railing.

"Minako!" Yutono had his Evoker in his hands before he realized, but Minako just gave him a weak smile and pushed it back down.

"I'm… fine" Another cough and more blood, "I know what my own blood tastes like… and it doesn't taste like seawater"

Realization spread over the medic's face as Hamono and Jackie caught up.

"Mina!"

"Easy" Minako objected when her twin grabbed her and looked her over, "I'm banged up, but you'll do more damage to me if you keep whipping me around"

Minako's eyes bulged and she pushed Hamono out of the way as she leaned over and puked up what little food was left in her stomach. Blood and pink vomit (A/N) collided with concrete and mixed in with the bloody water already dripping off her form.

Hamono couldn't help his nose from wrinkling, his twin smelled a nasty mix of blood and seawater and it was a smell he hoped to never again experience.

"Ack…" Minako spit out the remainder of the vomit in her mouth, "I think that's all the seawater from my lungs. Never thought that the water would look, feel, and smell like blood but not taste like it as well".

Jackie was the first to break the awkward silence as she collapsed to her knees laughing, "Holy, crap. We're all alive! I don't think I'm going to be standing anytime soon"

Yutono looked down and noticed how badly he was trembling, "I don't know how I'm standing to be honest".

The full weight of the situation finally hit the SEES field team like a truckload of bricks; they were alive, all Shadows were eliminated, and the train hadn't crashed.

"Man" Jackie spoke again, "Anyone want to go get something to eat? I'm starving right now"

Minako laughed weakly, "Even if I hadn't just puked, the only thing I want to do right now is take a bath. And possibly burn these clothes"

"You know what?" Hamono spoke up again, "Mina, I think I'm going to call on that dinner favor tomorrow night"

* * *

**A/N: First and foremost, that mention of the emergency exit way back in the beginning of the full moon was a little reference to something that me and a friend of mine did back in high school. Yes, we did use an emergency exit to get to an final exam on time. We'd been siting street-side on a modern version of a tram for about 30 minutes with no sign of us leaving anytime soon. So, after talking to the conductor on board and getting the 'I'm not saying to do it but I'll just not look at that camera for the next few minutes' response, we used the emergency exit to high tail it out of there.**

**Secondly, about Minako puking up pink vomit, that's actually a thing. If you vomit up water from your lungs (at least I know that pool water does this), the color of the vomit is pink. So, her vomit wasn't pink from the blood, but rather from the water in her lungs. The more you know.**

**Lastly, I'd like to announce that The Journey of Two is going on hiatus until 5/16 or so. Why? Well, I've got college and finals until about then and I really need to focus on them if I'm going to pass this year. Sorry, but college ranks a bit higher on the priority list than FanFiction does. I'll still around if you want to send be a PM with any questions, but I won't be beginning work on the next chapter for a while.**


	14. Chapter 14: May 9th to May 10th

**A/N: This chapter... made me realize just how rusty I am coming off a month long hiatus. Like holy crap I need to get back into the swing of things before more vital parts of this fic come up; which aren't far off.**

**Anyways, to prevent me needing to ever have another 'update' chapter again I'm going to create a section on my profile for that. So if you ever wonder what's the progress on the next chapter, or if I've drowned myself in work yet, check my profile.**

**Reviews:**

**rebfan90: Thanks, and yes she's turning into quite the monster-slayer at the moment. And to think that things are only going to be going up from here...**

**PhWoMp: Thanks. Good to hear that the fight scenes are easy to read. I'm always concerned while writing that I'll get a bit too far ahead of myself, especially when I go nuts during fight scenes (I survived exams if you're wondering).**

**it's me: Ah, this massive can of worms that is one of P3's plot holes. However, I think I know what went wrong. I think that during the localization of P3, the writers put down "He's a senior" (not what Mitsuru actually says but rather a summary of what she says) rather than "He's YOUR senior". While not really a major change to the script, the latter option (the one I personally went with for this fic) opens up the possibility of Odagiri being a 'senior' member of the Student Council while still being in your grade. Simply put, Odagiri is YOUR senior in the Student Council as he (I'm assuming this as he is the Head of the Disiplinary Committee) has previous experience working on the Council compared to you being a fresh recruit. If he WAS a senior in high school, it would make no sense for him to be trying to gather support to become the Student Council President in the first place. I understand where you're coming from in regards to your reference material, but ^this interpretation of circumstances makes everything fall into place rather than completely fall a part. Regardless, thanks for the support.**

* * *

5/9 (Sa) _Iwatodai Dormatory _(Near end of Dark Hour)

* * *

"This is the Command Room. Is that you Mitsuo?" Akiri and Ikutsuki were waiting on the 4th floor of the dorm when indicator that they were receiving an audio transmission lit up the console.

"_Yes"_ Akiri couldn't help herself as she raised an eyebrow at the heir's exasperated tone, _"It's me. I'm here to report that the operation was a success. However, the monorail sustained noticeable damage as a large portion of the glass windows were blown out and the cabin was nearly torn apart in the final battle. Thankfully, none of the juniors were severely injured while fighting"_

Ikutsuki let out a shaky sigh, "That's going to be a bit of a problem to give the press a cover story for the damages. I guess we should just be thankful that the monorail was stopped in time; the casualty count would have been on another 'plane' compared to a few broken pieces of glass".

"_The team performed admirably" _Mitsuo continued, _"Aristato-kun utilized yet another Persona we've never seen before and after scanning him, I believe that we don't have to worry about any issues regarding Summoning. Also, Aristato-san doesn't seem to be hindered by her lack of a summon-able Persona during combat"_.

"That's good to know" Akiri spoke up again, "but I think we need to start focusing on the Shadows. Possessing a monorail is a bit too much for my preference".

"I'll take a look into the matter" Ikutsuki replied, "In the meantime; keep an ear to the ground. We need to look to see if there are any patterns or clues. Remaining on the defensive isn't always going to work out for us".

"_Right. We'll be back to the dorm soon. Oh, and Akiri?"_ The silverette turned back to the monitor in response to her name, _"We're going to need a few towels when we return"_.

* * *

5/10 (Su) _Naganaki Shrine _(Morning)

* * *

Whistling along to her mp3, Minako leisurely approached the steps to the Naganaki Shrine wearing the same casual clothes Yutono had brought her about a month ago. It had taken a large chuck of the time from when the juniors had returned to the dorm to now for the blunette to scrub the smell of Iwatodai's bay out of body.

Her beloved, and recently upgraded, runner's jacket wasn't so lucky. After two trips through the wash yielded minimal progress, Minako had spread the garment out on the dorm's roof in hopes that the day's sunlight would dry it out. She'd set it down next to the pair of long biker shorts that had been part of the set after a quick test with a sharp scissors proved her suspicions correct; they were made out of the same 'regenerative' type cloth the jacket was made of.

Even with her usual gear temporarily out of service, Minako was still sorely tempted to go through her usual weekly workout if only to keep herself to some sort of steady schedule. Despite her measly four hours of sleep, the blunette's body still thrummed with energy. The final sequence of events that led to the swordswoman leaping off a monorail and cutting a basilisk's head in half _horizontally_ were still fresh enough to spike her blood pressure.

Minako repressed a shudder as the whole event flashed back to her; the way her vision blurred until only the basilisk and the places she needed place her feet. How it felt to nearly lose herself to nothingness while prepping an attack so powerfully it nearly dislocated her shoulder after she'd completed the cut.

The Reaper had gotten close and the hydra was a slight challenge, but since joining SEES Minako hadn't been in a situation where she questioned her ability to survive the encounter. And while a large part of her was thankful that she could fall asleep in her bed at night and not have to worry about something with too many eyes or too many teeth crawling through her window to try and gut her, the blunette couldn't deny the part of her that missed it.

Her personal demon that reveled in the sounds of steel against claw, the feeling of ichor against her face, and the dripping of her own blood against the ground. The part of her born from her need to survive every time she was forced to rip a Shadow a part with her bare hands, or the times where she needed to sacrifice another part of her body to scars that never faded just so she could live another day.

But when Minako woke up from her nap to find her legs were still a bit shaky after the impact from the harbor, she'd resigned herself to a walk to the shrine instead.

**Hmm… She doesn't seem to be here today.**

Thanatos' presence dragged Minako out of her private thoughts and back into the present. After a quick look around the shrine, the blunette concluded that his observations were true. While she was earlier than usual, finding the scowling brunette napping away on the shrine's bench the previous week showed that shouldn't be an issue.

_Did you manage to figure out what she's doing to herself after last time?_

**No, but I can tell you that it's not any form of mysticism. Which, while it doesn't exactly help us, makes things a bit less complicated.**

A ball of white fur bundling out from behind the shrine and running up to her cut off any response Minako was thinking of forming.

"Hey there Koramaru" Minako squatted down to pet the albino Shiba Inu between its ears, "Sorry to say I don't have any food for you, and it doesn't look like your usual care taker is going to be stopping by today".

Koromaru whined softly, looking at her with those questionably intelligent eyes of hers.

Minako, to her credit, scowled slightly back at the puppy eyes, "Don't give me that look. I can tell you've been hunting around here; you've got bits of blood in your fur".

Ruby red eyes feigned innocence for only a second before Koramaru let out a bark and took off back into the foliage.

Minako returned to her full height and lightly stretched her arms over her head. The rush from the previous night's battle was finally wearing off and the blunette considered taking another nap before making dinner for the nig-

Something reverberated through the air and shattered the peaceful ambience of the shrine. Minako whipped around as her demon's intuition roared in her mind. Sprinting up to where the shrine overlooked the city, she gripped the railing tightly as she scanned the skyline.

Nothing looked out of place, but the low growling from deep within her consciousness told her to question that.

_What the hell just happened?_

**I… I have no idea, Mistress. It's not possible, but…**

… _That just felt like the Dark Hour beginning._

It was broad daylight, but now that she could focus on it, Minako clearly felt the natural _wrongness_ that permeated the Dark Hour. In her-own mind, the blunette felt a shard of unease wedge itself into place. She just couldn't tell what its source was. Even deeper within herself, Minako felt the Seal holding Thanatos within her body surge with power. Accompanying that feeling was the strange sound that she couldn't exactly pin down but reminded her of a gear jammed in place.

"Grrr" Minako looked down to see that Koramaru was beside her, teeth bared towards the city.

"You can feel it too, huh?" Minako questioned before looking back up.

It made some semblance of sense; animals had much better senses than humans had.

Minako backed up and prepared to leave the shrine, "Things are going to pick up from here, aren't they".

* * *

**A/N: Oh, yes they are Minako. We're officially in the beginning of the Empress/Emperor arc of P3 and that mean that the aforementioned "more dangerous moon cycles" are going to begin to take effect.**

**In other news, that mysterious 'instinct/intuition' of Minako's that I'm included from time to time now has a source. And nothing says source like the basis of your blood lust. 'Demon's intuition' is right.**

**Explaining**** Abnormals:**

**Considering how much the name has grown on me, 'Abnormals' is now going to be the canonical name for the extraordinary Shadows that will be appearing.**

**Gotta say, it was slightly amusing to have the king of serpents as the Priestess Abnormal, but judging from the response it didn't detract from the scene. Anyways, this scene was one of the originals from back when TJoT was in its concept, and non-genderbent, form. The concept changed drastically from 'Minato kills a wyvern by stabbing it multiple times in the eye' to 'Minako kills a basilisk by cutting it in half'. I trashed the wyvern fight idea as I didn't make logical sense for me to have a monster with a reasonable amount of intelligence (Priestess Tarot involves the utilization of knowledge in the first place) flying low enough to the ground to have my Thanatos-carrying protag jump on its face. Of course, this leaves open the massive plot hole of why the basilisk didn't just knock the monorail off its tracks. To that, I say... nothing. Honestly, there really wasn't a reason that the basilisk didn't just wreck the train. I could just lie and say that I was referencing the inverted Priestess Tarot involving the misuse of knowledge, but that'd just be stupid. To be fair, the basilisk did try at one point (the part where Minako throws its tail off the train) but that didn't exactly work for it.**

**The rest of the fight is pretty self-explanatory: it used wind and ice type magic as they're prevalent in Priestess Personae, responded to Thanatos' insults due to its intelligence, etc.**

**Something that I thought was fun to write in was the use of glass by both sides of the fight; something that I note a lot of fics don't tend to cover either because they're rushing through the first Full Moon fight to get to the better parts of P3 or they just don't write out fight scenes in general, which is a bit of a shame but I can understand with a more plot-drive fic. Major props to _Forgotten Blood _for having Minato summon a unique Persona by cutting his hand open with a shard of glass during the Magician Full Moon. _That_ was/is a cool mechanic to have for a character.**

**A major thank you to everyone who supports this fic, as well as those who refrained from review the update chapter. I've always felt that update chapters were more or less cop-outs so I don't think I'll be having another one of those. In related news, Chapter 1 of this fic has broken 1,000 hits while the fic as a whole has broken 4,000. **

**Until next time,**

**Changling96**


	15. Author's Note and Final Thoughts

**Author's Note:**

**Alright, I know I specifically said that I would not do another Author's Note in place of an update but its been several months since the last actual update.**

**So, in the middle of working on the next update, I went back and re-read what I already wrote and, to be frank, the earlier chapters are pretty crap. I don't know if its the work I've done on my other fics lately that have given me a change in perspective or what, but I found so many problems with previous chapters.**

**First and foremost, Minako's personality is just absolutely all over the place. She changes from a seemingly silent and introverted athlete to a sagely survivalist in about a chapter and a half. Not to mention that Thanatos also seems to change by the chapter. I was trying to go for a multi-sided character, but it just feels to me like Minako has become far too outrageous. And considering she's an extremely important character, that's not a good thing.**

**Secondly, there are scenes that are hard to follow and just don't make sense. And if I'm wondering what's going on in something I wrote, that's a massive problem.**

**Lastly, there's just so many grammar and spelling mistakes. They're not major enough that they greatly diminish the quality of the text, but there's just so many tiny errors. Considering some of my more recent works, some parts of this fic are just so far below par.**

**All in all, I've decided that this is where The Journey of Two will be cut off.**

**However, I am not going to be dropping this story; I have put far too much work into this piece to abandon it. This original version will not be taken down, but I will begin work on a revamped version relatively soon. I could go back and fix all the errors with this work, but I think that starting anew will be the better option in the long run.**

**I want to thank everyone that has reviewed, followed, and/or favorited this fic, its thanks to you all that my first major fanfiction turned out to be such a success. Your support is what makes me want to produce the best works I can for your literary enjoyment.**

**I hope to see you all again on chapter 1 of The Journey of Two: Revamped.**

**Thank you all,**

**\- Changling96**


	16. Preview of TJoT R

_4/6 (Mo) Outskirts of Iwatodai_

* * *

It'd been a long day.

A _very_ long day.

So long, in fact, that they were only ten minutes away from it not even being the same day anymore.

But, despite that, she knew she couldn't fall asleep.

As much as the warm, comfortable weight on her lap and the steady beat of the train rolling over rails would have her otherwise do, she couldn't fall asleep.

So, when she felt her eyelids droop further than they were normally, she reached up to where her mp3 player was clipped to her jacket and turned the volume up another notch.

The music blasted away at her eardrums at a volume that would have had her foster mother after her throat; a thought that brought a flicker of amusement to her features for only a moment.

Not that it would have mattered since the car they were in was currently devoid of any other passengers.

Her gaze flickered back and forth, mindlessly scanning over the dull interior of the train.

The movement of _something_ snapped her out of reverie.

Looking left to right, there wasn't a person that had just walked past her

Looking out the window behind her, she couldn't see anything out of place other than the rapidly approaching skyline of what was going to be her home city for the foreseeable future.

Giving up with a sigh, she looked back down at her twin when he let out an unhappy grumble.

Only to nearly shout when she found a blue, slightly translucent butterfly resting on his messy head of brown hair.

It stared straight back at her; its dainty wings slowly moving up and down.

Frozen in place, she could only continually meet its gaze.

Seemingly content with itself, the butterfly lifted up into the air and, to the shock of the blunette, simply flew through the glass window above her.

"_We apologize for anyone inconvenienced by the delay. The next and final stop is Iwatodai. Iwatodai"_

The conductor's announcement interrupted any line of thought she was about to pursue.

Deciding to push the incident out of her mind, she gave her brother a shove on the shoulder.

"No… Mina… Five more minutes…" He groggily responded, before attempting to go back to sleep.

Rolling her eyes, she lifted his head off of her lap, stood up, and placed him back down on the seat. She grabbed her carry-on from its place on the rack above them and slid the duffle bag over her shoulder.

The train slowed down and turned as it neared the station.

"Hamo"

He let out another grumble.

"_Hamono" _She spoke up again, with more force in her voice.

"Alright, alright" He swung his legs back onto the ground and stood up, grumbling to himself as he grabbed his own bag.

"With all the effort I put into keeping where we're going a secret, I thought you'd be nicer to me".

The train screeched as the brakes applied and they stopped at the platform. She didn't bother answering him; as far as she was concerned, _he _was responsible for keeping _his_ 'fans' in check.

Walking through the doors and out into the station, she practically walked straight into a massive reminder of the situation she was about to be in.

In the center of the platform, a large steel clock counted down the moments until it was midnight.

_23:59:50_

_23:59:51_

_23:59:52_

_23:59:53_

_23:59:54_

_23:59:55_

_23:59:56_

_23:59:57_

_23:59:58_

_23:59:59_

* * *

**A/N: This is simply a short preview of what I have for Chapter 1 of The Journey of Two Revamped. The full chapter will be longer than this, and should be coming out within a week or so.**

**Stay tuned.**


	17. TJoT R is Live

**A/N: I completely forgot to go ahead and post this, but chapter one of the revamp is up.**

**I wanna formally apologize to you guys for the, ugh, ****_5 month_**** long delay to this series' revival. I really have no excuse for why this took so long to get to finishing. I legitimately had half of chapter 1 done ****_before_**** I posted that I was going to do the revamp in the first place back in December. However, I will say that with the time that I've wasted being a lazy piece of shit, I did manage to come up with quite a few changes to the first few chapters that should keep things rather fresh for my long-time readers.**

**I've said this dozens and dozens of times before, but I want to thank all of you for the favorites, follows, reviews, and even the support from a few guests. You all have been a great help to me when it comes to keeping my motivation to write up.**

**Anyways, like I mentioned above, the revamp is going to have numerous changes made to it; possibly chief among them is that Minako is going to be 'nerfed' in just about all aspects. Looking back, she was just getting far to into Mary Sue territory and her personality was just an absolute mess. I'm not sure if any of you would be interested in a full 'change log' of sorts, but let me know if anyone is interested. I'll probably post something up on my profile if I do.**

**All in all, I feel like starting over from scratch is really the best move for this series. I've definitely improved in the year and a half that this fic has been around, and I want to provide you all with the best content I can.**

**I hope to see you all at the revamp**

**\- Changling96**


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